Belief systems as an aspect of school culture : implication for school effectiveness

M.Ed.South Africa's first fully democratic election in 1994 introduced far-reaching changes and significant challenges. One of the most important was the formulation of policies. Despite new policies and non-racial provincial education departments, the poor quality and limited relevance of teaching and learning in schools remains an obstacle to economic growth and development. International experience suggests that the best route to quality improvement is through providing resources to individual schools and communities (National business initiative for growth development and democracy,1995/96:8). Since the new dispensation of 1994 a number of acts/policies have been developed and passed which affects the school directly. These are for example, the South African Schools Act No106 of 1996 (RSA,1996) that gives the governing bodies some powers to be involved in school affairs. This act encourages stakeholder involvement in schools more than before. This act and many more policies made the school more accessible to the external environment. The new dispensation also gives the different provinces the autonomy of managing their own budget. The Mpumalanga province started with a budget allocation of R 2,414 billion for 1996/97 and for 97/98 it was R2,519 billion. Examining the budget allocation and performance of learners in grade 12, one realises that a big share of the budget is used on personnel expenditure. Only eleven percent (11%) of the budget is used for resources and this is a matter for great concern to all stakeholders. Parents believe that they have to be more involved in teaching and learning in schools to encourage quality results and turn schools into effective schools