School fees exemption : a panacea or financial distress for schools?

Abstract

The pre-1994 education system created huge imbalances among public schools in South Africa, in terms of resource allocation. Surprisingly, the pronouncement by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, to declare some schools "no-fee schools", generated a mixed-bag of reactions within the entire education fraternity, "No-fee schools spark row" (Govender, 2006:6). Some sections are giving this decision their full support, while others are arguing that "new regulations will lead to standards dropping" (Govender & Makwabe 2007:4). Notwithstanding these contrasting views, an overwhelming majority (78%) of the school principals expressed satisfaction with this decision. This article, therefore, intends to explore the possible impact of this decision on the school's overall performance as perceived by principals of South African public schools.