Browsing by Author "Juan, Andrea Liesel."

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An analysis of governance in further education and training colleges in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
(2014) Juan, Andrea Liesel.; Lawrence, Ralph Bruce.; Stanton, Anne Sylvie.
The governance of Further Education and Training (FET) colleges in South Africa has been cited as an obstacle to the sector contributing to the developmental needs of the country. There has, however, been little academic research in this area. This thesis analyses the governance of FET colleges in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) by means of constructing a conceptual framework which examines governance from an organisational perspective and applies this framework to two FET colleges in the province. This is achieved through a largely qualitative methodology. The key question posed in this thesis is: Is the governance of FET colleges significantly affected by the environment? Through this investigation, this study is able to determine: (i) the external environmental characteristics that affect the governance of FET colleges; (ii) the effects of the external environment on FET colleges; (iii) how FET colleges respond to these external environmental demands; and (iv) why the FET colleges respond in the manner that they do. In answering the key question, the economic, political, policy and geographic environments in which FET colleges in the province operate are explored. It is concluded that the state of governance in these colleges is the result of external environmental influences and resource dependency. This investigation has highlighted that the external environment has placed demands on the system of further education, which has resulted in adaptive and avoidant governance practices in FET colleges that have been adopted out of necessity. While the study has not reported on all colleges in South Africa, it does identify factors that impact on the manner in which FET colleges are governed. The concern is raised that any national government interventions need to be cognisant of the policy implementation challenges that the external environment will impose on FET colleges. Failure to do so will lead to ongoing and increasing governance practices of avoidance and adaptation.
The no-fee schools policy: a case study of policy implementation in four KwaZulu-Natal schools.
(2007) Juan, Andrea Liesel.; Stanton, Anne Sylvie.
Education under the apartheid system was governed by the notion of separate development for each race. After the democratic elections in 1994, education policy has undergone numerous changes. The current Department of Education (DoE) is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring quality education to both advantaged and disadvantaged schools in order to eradicate the inequality fostered by the education policies of the apartheid regime. The inability of parents to pay for school fees was identified as the key determinant in access to schooling. So, although access to equal standards of education was theoretically equal, not all eligible children were attending school. To remedy this situation the Department of Education presented a broad policy statement in which it pledged to provide free education to those who could not afford school fees. This became part of the Education Laws Amendment Bill (2004) and is referred to as the no-fee schools policy. The no-fee schools policy was introduced in 2006 and is currently implemented at approximately 14 000 schools (Department of Education, 2006). Newspaper articles such as"Schools Run Out of Money" which appeared in the Mail and Guardian (13 May 2007) suggest that the no-fee schools are experiencing implementation problems. The aim of this study is to determine why this is so. This aim was achieved by firstly examining the literature on policy, policy implementation and street-level bureaucrats by consulting secondary sources such as Lipsky (1980) who examines public service workers, Parsons (1995) and Pressman and Wildavsky (1983) who examined a number of factors that influence policy implementation. Secondly, the policy framework for education in South Africa was then determined by analysing government legislation. Thirdly, primary data was collected from four schools in the Ukhahlamba region in KwaZulu-Natal that have been categorised by the Department of Education as no-fee schools. The primary data was then analysed by: (a) looking for references to the theoretical concepts discussed and (b) determining the degree of congruence between the legislative framework and the manner in which the policy is being implemented. The main finding of this research project was that schools do not posses the necessary capacity to implement the no-fee policy in its current form.