Examining the school governing bodies’ and their financial management roles and functions in public schools

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the school governing bodies (SGBs) and their financial management roles and functions in public schools. Participants were 24 members of the SGBs’ finance committees who were selected through a purposive sampling technique. A qualitative research approach was followed, and an exploratory case study design was applied. Data was collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and secondary documents, and it was analyzed through thematic and document analysis techniques. The findings revealed that members of SGBs do not understand their financial management roles and functions as they do not have the requisite knowledge and skills (Bisschoff & Thurlow, 2005; Dlomo et al., 2022; Sebidi et al., 2023). The findings also revealed that some financial decisions are not taken by designated finance committees, and this compromises the financial management responsibility of SGBs. Furthermore, this study finds that parent members of the SGBs are mostly financially illiterate and passive in meetings, hence their reliance on the school principal for financial decisions (Kruger et al., 2022). This study concludes that members of SGBs must be adequately trained in financial management skills so that they can effectively support their schools.