| Summary: | The Department of Education and Training (DET) discovered that its
principals were not performing to expectations. This was caused mainly
by the fact that principals were selected from among ordinary class and
subject teachers and compounded by the absence of a departmental Induction
course.
In 1982 the DET compiled a series of lectures on "School Management" which
was directed at principals, deputy principals and heads of department.
The programme was intended to inform managers about rules and regulations
as well as procedures and facilities within the department. The programme
met with limited success.
In the meantime the DET was negotiating with Performance and Educational
Services (PES), a subsidiary of African Oxygen (ltd), to run a programme
which would develop the principals' managerial competencies.
The programme designed by PES had a special feature called the "top-down".
This feature involved managers in developing the managers immediately below them.
Eight top-downs discussed in this study address areas like self-management,
managing subordinates' outputs, managing conflict In schools, and nurturing
student development. The top-downs address management areas in which
principals were found to experience most difficulties.
The study identified seven management development programmes to which
principals in the DET were exposed. Through the use of a questionnaire
principals In the Vanderbijlpark area of the DET (N=38) were asked to
list the programmes according to the degree to which each improved their
skills in the performance of management tasks and the handling of management
areas. They were also asked to evaluate the extent of improvement in
their management skills attributable to exposure to top-downs.
According to findings gleaned from the questionnaire data the top-downs
were judged by the respondents to be the programme that had the greatest
influence In Improving their management skills. Secondly, the respondents
also evaluated the top-downs as having Improved their management skills
"much" and "very much",
The conclusion reached after analysing the data of the empirical study
Is that top-downs are regarded highly by the principals In the Vanderbijlpark
area. === Thesis (MEd)--PU vir CHO, 1990
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