QA4ODFL1/Governance/School governance

According to the UNESCO International Bureau of Education, governance refers to organisational structures and processes that are put in place to ensure accountability, transparency, responsiveness, rule of law, stability, equity and inclusiveness, empowerment, and broad-based participation, (UNESCO International Bureau of Education, (n.d.)). The smooth functioning of an open school depends to a very large extent on the astuteness of the governance system that is put in place. Governance creates an enabling open schooling environment where there is accountability and participatory decision-making. The structures that are put in place, the people who are appointed to those structures and their knowledge and experience of education generally and of ODL in particular are major determinants of the success of their role in steering the open school to success.

The school governing body (SGB) is responsible for making decisions on the strategic direction of an open school; it sets the school's strategic goals and direction. It supports school management by defining the roadmap to be followed and articulating high level strategic thinking which steers the school organisation towards achieving set goals. A well-functioning school governing body also interrogates the why behind both the goals to be achieved and the plans for getting there. This enables it to institute changes whenever necessary. In this course, you need to distinguish between governance and management, two terms that are often confused. Whilst the former is responsible for making high level, strategic decisions about the school, the latter is concerned with the day-to-day operations of the school. Thus, management is concerned with allocation of resources to ensure that the school achieves its goals, as defined by the governing body in the school strategic plans.

The table below illustrates the different functions of school governance and management:

Table 1: Distinction between governance and management Adapted from UNESCO-IBE, (n.d.)