Abstract:

In 1994 apartheid was brought to an end in South Africa and democracy was launched. One of the major tasks the government faced was to rebuild the education system, a system that had been characterised by deep inequalities between races, between rural and urban schools, between the rich and poor and many more. How could the system be transformed to achieve social justice? How was quality education for all to be achieved? Given the plethora of issues to attend to, where was government going to start? Transforming the education system entailed, among other things, huge government expenditure. In this connection and seeking to improve the quality of education for all government categorised all public schools into quintiles (1-5). Quintile 1 schools are those located in the poorest communities while Quintile 5 are those in the most affluent ones. Government funding is prorated according to the quintiles with the former receiving the highest and the latter the lowest. While this government intervention has gone some way in redistributing resources accordingly, many schools particularly those in quintiles one -three, are still underperforming in terms of learner academic achievement. Leadership is widely believed to be one of if not the missing link. This raises the question: how do school principals use their time as leaders and managers? In this paper I seek to report on a study of patterns, causes and effects of time use by some quintile one-three principals. The servant leadership theoretical lens was used. Evidence is drawn from a semi-structured questionnaire administered to purposively selected school principals, school circuit managers (principals’ immediate supervisors) and former principals and deputy principals thus making up two groups- practising school principals and non-principals who are experiencing or have experienced principals’ use of time. Findings reveal that of the six major areas of leadership and management: Administration; Personnel; Curriculum and Teaching; Extra- curricular activities; Interaction with stakeholders; the least time is spent on curriculum matters while most time is on administration. The way many school principals use time has a negative impact on student learning. The school principal’s role, particularly in disadvantaged contexts is very complex. Thus his/her time use can only be understood in context.

Keywords:

School principal, time use, context, deprived contexts.