In post-apartheid South Africa, the introduction of School Governing Bodies
in 1996 was one of the strategies to decentralise education by devolving some
powers to parents, teachers, and learners. The South African Schools Act, Act
No 84 of 1996, was enacted to regulate school governance. This regulation
required parents to know their roles in the School Governing Bodies. In spite
of this, however, relevant literature shows that most parents in rural SGBs
continue to lack financial management skills to effectively play this role.
Utilising a qualitative research approach within the interpretive paradigm and a
case study research design, this study explored the role of parent members of
the School Governing bodies in accountable financial management in rural
schools. Using the Accountability theoretical frame work as a lens to analyse
data from 16 SGB members presiding over finances of six no-fee public
ordinary schools, this study found that the participants faced a challenge of
understanding English which in this case was used as a medium of
communication by the National Department of Education in workshops meant
to train newly appointed parent SGB members. It was further found that the
language was a barrier to efficient understanding of the roles of these
members, even after training. The study recommends that the South African
Schools’ Act and all other documents utilised in the training of new SGB
members should be first translated into the local language in order to gain
efficiency and effectiveness. This should be done to enhance the parents’
understanding of the language used in their training and subsequently play
their roles efficiently.