The image of every school is important. It relates to how the public sees the particular school - calm, chaotic, disciplined or lack of it among learners. The public may label a school as good or bad depending on how they perceive it and no parent or good educator would like to associate himself/herself with a school with bad image. Equally every good principal is more concerned with the image of his/her school. To this end it was seen as important for parents, educators and principals to provide their views on how SGBs can restore discipline in order to improve their schools’ image. The general consensus among parents, educators and principals was that SGBs must assist school in discipline matters through drawing up a code of conduct for learners.
The responses from all participants (parents, educators and principals) indicated that they all agreed with the fact that the SGB has a role to play in improving the image of the school. The educators and the principals lauded the parents’ role in checking indiscipline among learners. Discipline is the cornerstone of a good school climate, teaching and learning and the image of a school relates very much to its climate or the prevailing atmosphere and that school learning climates are characterised by the degree to which they are effective in producing the desired learning outcomes (Brookover, Bearner, Efthim et al. 1982). Thus all the participants concur that a good climate or image can promote effective teaching and learning while a poor school climate does the opposite. In practice the school as a working environment can either foster teacher motivation or exercise a negative influence on it (Glatthorn & Fox 1996:9). In reality a school with poor image cannot attract good educators and learners because most people would not like to be associated with bad name or poor results. All the principals and the educators confirmed that in an attempt to create good image for the school and also promote teaching and learning the SGBs of the respective schools have developed code of conduct in addition to mission statements. A school’s image can be improved when learners respect the code of conduct and work towards the achievement of what the school stands for e.g. quality education through self- discipline. Indeed SASA (1996: 20c and d) requires the SGB to adopt a code of conduct for its school.
The three chosen schools for this study like their other counterparts in the rural areas face crises or problems of indiscipline amongst learners. Throughout the discussion the various participants (parents, educators and principals) mentioned drugs and alcohol amongst learners at the schools
as the main causes of indiscipline, vandalism, bunking of classes, rape and poor academic performance. One parent serving on SGB of school B puts it thus:
If we are to improve the image of our school then we have to rescue it school from drug, alcohol and sex crises.
It is interesting to note that all participants are aware of the potential damage of drugs , alcohol and sex to the learners of their schools. They believe children need direction and guidance to achieve desirable educational goals. The provision a code of conduct enforced by both educators’ and parents through Learners Representative Councils (LRCs) could go a long way to check indiscipline at the schools. All the participants admitted that since the abolishing of corporal punishment in schools indiscipline has risen among learners in their respective schools. Participants mentioned that learners generally come late to school, leave classes at any time, insult and threaten teachers because of the influence of drugs. With this situation in order to improve the school’s image parents need to come together with educators to provide guidance and counselling on regular basis to the learners. One parent who is SGB chairperson of school B confirmed that since the beginning of this school year nurses, medical doctors, social workers and correctional service personnel have been invited to talk to learners at his school on monthly basis. This, according to the parent, is done to create motivation amongst learners, reduce indiscipline, give them direction and improve the image of the school. These sentiments are echoed by parents in other rural areas who express their desperation in this way:
What we need is career guidance, which will help children to follow the right direction...They must not focus on things that will make them stay at home, sitting without any kind of job. We must get teachers who will help us to teach our children not to depend only on working for others but who can work for themselves and develop employment” (Emerging Voices 2005:5).
In deed school learning climate is usually characterized by the degree to which they are effective in producing the desired learning outcome among the students (Brookover, Beanner, Efthim et al. 1982:2).
Discussion
The issue of discipline has become the greatest concern among all stakeholders of education. Effective teaching and learning and for that matter improvement in school performance can only
take place where and when there is discipline. Although a school may have the best code of conduct if it is not enforced by all role players it cannot assist the school to improve its academic performance. Learning can be fruitful when there is conducive atmosphere, respect for law and order, calmness and security for both learners and educators. Educators can also teach well for learning output to be increased when there is a culture of teaching and learning. It is for this very reason that the co-operation of parents through the SGB is crucial in providing and maintaining a conducive learning climate for schools at all times. The input of parents in maintenance of discipline is crucial to improvement of academic performance of learners.