ETH303T ASS

QUESTION 1
1.1 The factors making education provision in post-modern societies an extremely and complex specialised task.

Due to societies consisting of such vast differences in culture, language, racial and religion, makes the provision of education a difficult task. The problem lies in learners in the classroom coming from different backgrounds, social settings and having to accommodate all these differences in one class when trying to educate these learners in a certain topic. It makes it difficult to know where each learners staring point of understanding this topic is and then forming all these different starting points of learners in the classroom to grasp the concept being taught. The “ït” word in education is this of “inclusive education” this is an fantastic concept but it makes education in a post-modern era very difficult to educate learners about a complex specialised task. In my opinion education provision in most modern societies will not fade away but this complex task will only get more integrand as time passes due to societies becoming extensively more complex.

1.2 The composition of the education system
In South Africa education is covered by two National departments the department of basic education this department is responsible for primary and secondary schools, then the department of higher education and training which is responsible for tertiary education and vocational training. The department of basic education deals with public schools, private schools (independent schools), early childhood development centres and special needs schools. The 9 provinces in South Africa have their own education departments that are responsible for implementing the policies of the national department. The academic year runs from January to December primary school reception to grade 6. Secondary school has junior secondary grades grade 7 – 9 further education and training grade 10 – 12, certificates and diplomas generally 1 – 2 years of studying bachelor’s degrees from 3 years to 6 years of studying, honours degrees 1 further year from under graduated study, masters degree two years of post graduate study and lastly doctorate varies in duration with a minimum of 2 years. South Africa has 11 official languages but schools and universities generally use either English or Afrikaans as their language of instruction.

1.3 Educators and parents as partners
Educators must realise that they need the involvement of parents in the teaching of their learners as much as parents need educators in educating their children. It is immiscible how dependant educator’s parents and learners are from another. It is not just the educators and parents that should work as partners but the involvement of the learner in the educational setting is of the upmost importance. There should be a clear communication line between educator and parent, so many times information is lost between the educator parent and learner due to communication breakage. It must be understood that the educator cannot do the job expected of them if there are no parent involvement, what also should be remembered that the parent being overly committed to the education of their child can also have a negative impact on the learners education.

QUESTION 2
2.1 The structure of the school governing bodies (SGBs)
The structure of a school governing body resembles that of a management team of a corporation. The perfect situation for any SGB of the school is to have a minimum of six people appointed in different positions. People having the skills to pertaining to financials, economic management, tertiary marketing, human resource management and lastly the chairman (overseeing manager).
2.2 The functions of the school governing bodies (SGBs)
The SGB is indirectly responsible for the governance of the school. The SGB is therefore a body of parents that is involved in helping the SMT (school management team) in not only day to day running of the school but in making decisions with the principal in helping school move forward in developing the school as a whole. The SGB is thus a very important component of any school and its wellbeing.
2.3 The relationship between educators and the school governing bodies
It is of the upmost importance for the school governing body and the educators of a school to have a good relationship, that is why a communication channel must be created for the governing body and educators to lease. Most schools thus have an educator that represents all the educators at the SGB meetings to facilitate the decisions made for the school by the SGB and principle to be of the best nature and intension of the school. A healthy relationship between the SGB and educators will directly constitute a healthy school environment.
QUESTION 3
Being able to create a balance between the autocratic and laissez-faire style of leadership will depend on the situation. In a classroom situation a autocratic style of leadership will have you obtain discipline, but educating a child is not just about having discipline in the classroom. As an educator you need to form ideas within a child through connecting previous and present knowledge, this is helped along through a laissez-faire style in a classroom.