Structural inequalities in school leadership and management across South African schools

In the National Development Plan strengthening the quality of school leadership and management was identified as a priority to support improvements in South African basic education. But there are no available training programmes that have been rigorously proven to raise the quality of school leaders and managers. This policy brief, however, highlights that opportunity exists for provincial administrations to at least improve the quantity of management in schools in line with policy guidelines. Current, available research and national payroll data reveal patterns and trends in School Management Team resourcing that are at odds with an improvement agenda in basic education.