Principals’ explanations for high matric results in rural secondary schools in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

It is conventionally accepted that education can be key to an individual’s future success. Moreover, how and where an individual attains this education can further determine his/her future. Whereas rural schools are often categorised as and associated with providing poor, low and inferior education (du Plessis, 2014), this study set out to explore examples of rural schools which, despite their rurality, managed to consistently produce high matric results. Specifically, the study focused on exploring the role of the principals of selected rural secondary schools in Pietermaritzburg that have been able to produce and maintain high matric results despite their constraints and challenges. The study had four objectives. The study’s first objective was to explore principals’ perceptions of the ways in which high matric results are attained in rural secondary schools. The second objective was to explore the role that rural secondary principals had in bringing about high matric results. The third objective was to explore principals’ behaviours that they perceived were associated with the attainment of high matric results in rural secondary schools. The fourth objective of the study was to explore the internal processes and strategies that rural principals used to attain and maintain high matric results. The study made use of a qualitative research method, with semi-structured interviews being conducted with five secondary schools’ principals from rural schools around Pietermaritzburg. Guiding the study and the interpretation of the findings were the contingency theories, particularly Fiedler’s model of the contingency theory. This theory provides a framework that explains how organisations function effectively when leaders take into consideration both the internal and external factors that build an organisation (Donaldson, 2001). The findings from the study suggest that several factors and stakeholders contributed to the high matric results produced in the sample of rural secondary schools included in the study. Specifically, the findings suggest that the collective effort and hard work of the principals, matric students, former matric students, school staff, parents, school governing bodies, social workers, psychologists and rural communities at large contributed to the high matric results obtained in these rural schools. These findings are discussed in light of the contemporary challenges that rural schools in South Africa face.