The essentiality of decolonisation to excellent functionality by public secondary schools

Abstract

The paper interrogates why experimentation with decolonisation is hard to come by in public secondary schools despite its usefulness. The paper is both conceptual and empirical in nature. Document study and interviewing techniques were used to collect data from three selected secondary schools in one of the Districts of Limpopo Province. Research findings reveal that firstly, sticking to old apartheid practices prevent schools from becoming sufficiently functional. Secondly, dearth of consciousness that decolonisation revolutionises schools, delay managing schools through it. Thirdly, the absence of decolonisation in schools amounts to emancipation, without freedom, to institutional incumbents. Lastly, decolonisation emphasises taking thinking differently seriously in educational institutions. As part of the conclusion, the researcher recommends that public secondary schools need to genuinely embrace the 21st century manner of managing and leading learning institutions where decolonisation of every practice at the school, permeates every corner of a school’s governance. Such a change of focus is likely to assist schools to deinstitutionalise the entrenched colonialism which is irrelevant in the 21st century schooling.