Curriculum Management in KZN Rural High Schools: Enablers and Constraints

Background

Many curriculum changes have taken place in South Africa, especially after the 1994 democratic elections. The people at the forefront of implementing those changes are principals of schools working together with their School Management Teams (SMT) and teachers. However, more is expected from the Principal as they are the leaders of the School Management Team (SMT). As a result, they are expected to direct and monitor the work of the SMT and encourage a shared vision among all the staff members. Teachers see principals as the custodians of curriculum changes; as a result, principals are expected to communicate and provide the resources needed to successfully implement the curriculum changes (Van Wyk, 2020). It's not only teachers and learners that are involved in curriculum matters, community and parents also need to be involved. However, for principals to deliver their duties effectively, they need to have deep knowledge on curriculum standards, sufficient curriculum knowledge, and strategies on how to improve learner achievement (Dayson, 2016).

Research has shown that it is the leadership and management in schools responsible for preventing curriculum change initiatives from being successful, especially in the South African context (Van der Westhuizen and Van Vuuren, 2007). The authors further suggest that this could be related to the issue that the appointment of principals, based on their learners' good results, does not guarantee that principals will be good at leading schools, let alone implement curriculum changes. Therefore, additional measures need to be implemented by the employer “to strengthen the type of candidates who are being appointed as principals as interviews alone are insufficient” (Van Wyk, 2020:164). Furthermore, Van der Westhuizen (2015) argues that a school's management and leading requires an individual with specialised skills and knowledge, as teaching experience alone is not enough for one to be a successful principal. Therefore, principals must be trained in educational management and leadership. Additionally, Zuze and Juan (2020) view it as necessary that principals get training in different programmes such as implementing policies and raising the academic standards in schools. So, the way principals are appointed must be looked at and for newly appointed principals to get support in the form of training to deliver on their mandate.

In the updated Policy on the South African Standard for Principalship, one of the core responsibilities of a principal is that of being a curriculum leader, manager, and evaluator (RSA, 2016). The Policy further highlights the five main kinds of leadership that principals have to execute: strategic leadership, executive leadership, instructional leadership, cultural leadership, and organisational leadership. As an instructional leader, the Principal, amongst other things, is expected to” lead continuous improvement in curriculum implementation” (RSA, 2016: 11). So, from the updated Policy, the role of the Principal as far as curriculum management is concerned is very clear, and that shows the critical role that the Principal has to play in curriculum management. Other core functions of the principals' duties as set out by PAM include policy enactment and the management of teachers, learners, information, infrastructure, and school discipline (Zuze & Juan, 2020). As much as the responsibilities of the principals are known, however, research by Msila (2010) indicates that many rural schools' principals find educational changes to be more challenging than their urban counterparts. Therefore, they find it hard to maintain such changes.