Improving Quality Education in Rural South African Schools through Shared Leadership Style: A Case Study of Three Rural Secondary Schools

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This paper discussed how to improve the quality of education in rural schools in South Africa by advocating for the inclusion of community-based leaders (CBLs) such as traditional leaders, religious leaders and business leaders in school affairs by principals. The study was premised on the observation that principals lack the competencies and capabilities to share leadership with community-based leaders such as traditional, religious and business leaders. The exclusion of community-based leaders in crucial decision-making processes resulted in poor learner performance. The study was grounded on the assumption that sharing leadership expertise by principals would sustain quality learning and teaching culture in rural schools. The belief is that community-based leaders are the most respected people in their communities and therefore their voices can be heard when it comes to parent participation and combating social ills in schools. The study was conducted purposely in poor-performing rural schools whereby community-based leaders were excluded in school matters. A phenomenological study with an interpretive-constructivism paradigm was conducted to establish sustainable principals’ shared leadership roles for quality education. Data collected through interviews in three schools were thematically analysed and it revealed that: Principals lack competent and capable leadership skills to include community-based leaders in school matters. Also, social ills prevail which affect learning and teaching negatively. Furthermore, community based-leaders were only invited when there was a crisis and once the crisis solved, their input was no longer needed. Thus, the authors recommended that the Department of Basic Education could spend more resources on training rural school principals about the importance of including community-based leaders in crucial decision-making processes to improve and sustain quality education in rural areas. The authors also recommend ZiCBLs Model for the improvement of quality education in rural areas. Keywords: Shared Leadership, Community-Based Leaders, Competencies, Capabilities, Quality Education.