June is an important month in the South African school calendar, with the election of school governing body (SGB) representatives scheduled to take place.
The elections take place every three years at about 26 000 schools in the country and aims to provide a uniform system for the organisation and governance of schools.
Membership of the SGB is open to educators, parents, learners at the school, school staff and in the case of special schools, experts in the field of special needs education.
The elections are run in terms of the SA Schools Act (SASA) and will be run on national guidelines set down by the department of education.
To this end, the department has released a national framework for the interpretation of SASA in order to ensure that SGB elections are in line with SASA, occur at the same time nationally, are free and fair, illustrate sound democratic practice, and allow for community participation. The guidelines also indicate good practice to guide the elections.
The book covers the entire election process and provides the relevant parties with the necessary background information to ensure that the election of the more than 100 000 governors runs smoothly.
A copy of the book can be downloadedhere.