The leadership role of the principal in fostering sustainable maintenance of school facilities

Abstract

The purpose of the study reported on here was to explore the extent to which the role of the principal as ex officio member of the School Governing Body (SGB) facilitated or hindered the development of strategies that are effective and sustainable for the maintenance of school facilities. The rationale for this study was that the South African Schools Act No. 84 (Republic of South Africa, 1996a) regards the maintenance of school facilities as a school governance function and hence under the legal purview of the SGB. This view could limit the role of the principal concerning this aspect of school management. For this research project, semi-structured interviews were conducted with school principals from primary and secondary schools drawn from both historically disadvantaged and privileged schools in one school district in South Africa. It was found that the principal’s role is compromised, especially concerning the development of effective and sustainable facility maintenance strategies, as SGBs are inclined to give due consideration to this aspect. The nature of the benefit of the maintenance of school facilities is intricate and is not understood by school stakeholders. As a result, the overall maintenance of school facilities receives less attention and leads to difficulty in defending the cost-benefit ratio thereof against equally competing priorities. We, therefore, recommend that a whole-school approach be embarked upon. The leadership role of the principal may have to be at the centre of this strategy for the maintenance of school facilities.

Keywords: facilities; facilities maintenance; leadership; learning environment; policy; principal; school; strategy