The role of education districts in South Africa has mostly been portrayed as administrative and secondary to the supposedly important task of school improvement focus on instructional leadership. Recently, Dr. Khosa has published a paper providing a fresh perspective on the issue, revealing how districts can be at the core of meaningful, equitable, and sustainable education delivery.
The Link
Between Policy and Program Dr. Khosa’s report stresses that the district’s education sector’s role is to facilitate the national and provincial policy’s implementation practice “that leads to schools’ systemic delivery of quality learning and teaching”. Therefore, the district’s function is not so much the support of implementation; instead that is the crucial link between the expected and intended policy effect in reality.
Shortcomings: Capacity Building The major criticism of districts in education management is their instruction management capacity. Yet, as Dr. Khosa firmly states, the lack of such capacity is probably the problem on all levels of management and all sectors. South Africa’s districts have been and still are on the forefront of their improvement, but their potential for enhanced capacity may even warrant a new view. The report suggests that the inadequate operational capacity of districts must be balanced, not extended, by their administrative function. Consistent district staffing, accountable senior managements, and professional staff should look after schools and link the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.
Future Orientation: Their Professional Role Dr. Khosa’s paper revealed one interesting point: districts in the South African education system are held from the political-electoral system. The district posts in the sector are not won by selecting the best political career of central government officials for distribution throughout the provinces. Moreover, the country does not need to hire a group of super managers to manage them, which leads to unalterable professional identities of districts.
Yet, one of the most substantial obstacles remains: new district officials usually do not have targeted professional development programs that would cater to their unique position within the education system. To address such opportunities, the National Education Collaboration Trust has launched a District Winter School that is aimed at providing district officials with the essential skills. However, Dr. Khosa argues that their number should increase in order to facilitate the steady improvement of district performance.
A Three-Tier Approach
Dr. Khosa suggests a three-tier approach to improving district performance. The following three timeframes can be identified based on their objectives: short-term, mid-level, and long-term aims, which can be achieved in 1-12 months, up to 3 years, and up to 5 years respectively.
Short-term: “Operational Efficiency and Optimization,” i.e., ensuring that elementary “hygiene” issues of the districts are solved, while the school terms, assessment, and management meetings are consistently organized and documented.
Mid-term: fostering strategic and operational planning through ensuring that district goals are aligned with the province’s goals, as well as making “better connections” between schools, districts, and provinces.
Long-term: the establishment of a culture of high performance that includes shared professional identity, obtaining the capacity to innovate and stress-test, as well as monitoring and evaluating improvements.
The Way Forward
To summarize, Dr. Khosa’s paper creates a compelling argument that investments in district performance must remain in the focus of educational reform in South Africa. With people directly involved in the process, such as principals and teachers, increasingly distrusting the districts, evading the district level, and discarding districts from the sphere of instructional leadership have made the entire system more fragmented and less efficient. Thus, it is vital to aim at the systematic development of district performance at all three levels outlined by Dr. Khosa.
In summation, districts are crucial components of South Africa’s education system. Dr. Khosa’s work, thus, presents a compelling and thought-provoking case regarding how we should view them. This shift would take us from thinking of districts strictly in terms of administrative efficiency to considering them effective improvements for the education sector. Clearly, these shifts are not easy and require a strong long-term investment to ensure proper functioning of district policies. Additionally, districts need to become bustling with officials who take their jobs seriously for these significant policy shifts to see through the changes that South Africa needs.
This blog post is based on the insights from Dr. Khosa’s recent paper on education districts in South Africa. For a deeper understanding of his work, I encourage you to read the full paper.
