The advent of school based management in the 21st century

The 21st century has witnessed management reforms in South Africa in the form of School Based-Management. School-Based-Management has become a widely preferred management style in schools because of the belief that it gives rise to increased production at school level. While the need for effective School-Based-Management is supported, there is much less certainty of what role and responsibility each and every stakeholder needs to play that is likely to yield the desired outcomes. Through this empirical but discussion paper in essence, we explore the nature and the rationale behind School Based Management. The views and the different roles and responsibilities of every stakeholder as well as the intervention strategies implemented by the department of education are explored. One on one interviews were conducted with purposefully selected 9 participants from three schools. The results show that the majority of stakeholders have held a positive assumption about School Based Management as the means towards transforming the management style in schools from bureaucratic to active participants in major decision making processes as required by School Based-Management that aims at ensuring effective teaching and learning at school level