Assessment of Needs and Capacity of District Office Professional Staff

4. ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF STAFF IN DISTRICT OFFICES – AN ANALYSIS
The legitimacy of this study, and the relevance of a programme of training for District
Office professional staff depends on the extent to which the roles and responsibilities of
the District Offices, as a whole, are properly understood, assimilated and endorsed. The
more the content of the study was explored, the clearer this fact became. The roles and
responsibilities of District Offices professional staff, particularly, cannot be finalized
without some reflection on the manner in which these responsibilities can be combined
and articulated to demonstrate fulfillment of District Office obligations. And, the
obligations of the District Office must be defined both in relation to the policy mandates
and development objectives of the Provincial Education Department and in terms of the
needs and priorities of schools and other clients “on the ground”.
This section of the report cannot serve to fully analyze and reflect on the roles and
responsibilities of the District Office. Although this would be worthwhile in the context, it
is not a matter of priority for the objectives of this report. Instead of a full analysis,
however, this section of the report will explore the obligations of the District Office from
the perspective of the schools. In our deliberation of the project, and in our discussion
with District Officials and Departmental colleagues it was noted on several occasions that
the role of the District Office is seen from the priorities of the Province and not the needs
and issues confronted at schools. As a result, an analysis was done of the needs and
priorities of schools for services and support from their respective District Offices.
The needs of schools were defined according to the model for wholeness in school
development as presented in Figure 1. In each of the 12 areas noted, critical activities to
preserve the wholeness of the school were identified. These activities were derived from
a variety of sources, but were developed with particular reference to the responsibilities of
school managers as defined in the manual for school management. Workshops were
convened with a sample of school representatives in order to explore the challenges and
issues encountered in each of the 12 areas of the model, and the areas in which support
is required by the District Office. The process also sought to enquire about whether the
necessary support was available from District Offices.
The information generated through this process was then shared with the relevant
professional staff in the District Office to explore and confirm what was perceived as gaps
in the services and support they rendered to schools. The District Officials confirmed,
clarified and contributed to the inputs made by School Officials. In the end, an extensive
documentation of gaps in the level of service to schools was prepared. In many cases,
District personnel and their school counterparts felt that District Officials did not have the
capacity to respond to many of the issues that School Officials raised. We have noted
these gaps as both deficits in the definition of responsibilities and possible areas in which
training can be provided to more adequately prepare District Officials to undertake their
responsibilities in schools.
The purpose of this section of the report, therefore, is to present the issues which have
been raised at the school level, to note the responsibilities that are implied in the gaps
and issues and, to derive, as a consequence, implications for the capacity development
of District Officials.
Tables 13 to 23, from page 35 to page 69 present comments from each of the 12 areas of
the model. The contents reflects the issues and perceptions which are generated by
school mangers (including SGB members) and the issues and perceptions generated by
District Officials.
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