Accountability

Accountability therefore requires that all school governing bodies

become legitimate and working institutions of civil society.

• Through the election  (Links to an external site.)process, voters elect a political party to represent their interests in all matters of government. Voters therefore have the duty to elect those people who can best serve their interests  (Links to an external site.)and to hold those elected accountable for the decisions and actions taken.

• The Constitution makes it clear that public administration (Links to an external site.) – which includes the public school system – must be governed by the values and principles of professionalism (Links to an external site.), efficiency, equity, transparency, representivity  (Links to an external site.)and accountability.

• The Constitution acknowledges the interest of communities in their local schools and grants communities the right to take responsibility for them and to hold the educators and elected school governing body (Links to an external site.) members accountable for what is happening at the school.

• Accountability therefore requires that all school governing bodies become legitimate and working institutions of civil society (Links to an external site.). Above all, accountability means that we are all responsible for the advancement of our nation through education and through our schools, and that we are all responsible to others in our society for our individual behaviour (Department of Education 2001:17).

• By working in a cooperative learning setting, learners can begin to understand that the decisions of the group need to be transparent for all group members to support it.

• They also learn that the different members are accountable to the group for the section of work they are responsible for. When learners take responsibility for the learning of their group and for their own individual learning and they understand individual accountability, they will begin to understand, too, that each person in the country is accountable to other people. This valuable lesson will prepare learners to become adults who act responsibly towards society by taking responsibility for their own individual behaviour (Kitshoff, 2006:23).

• Module: Discipline

• Module: Key Concepts

• Module: Values Entrenched in the Constitution 

• Introduction: Values Entrenched In The Constitution
• Democracy
• Social Justice
• Equality
• Non-Racism and Non-Sexism
• Ubuntu (Human Dignity)
• An Open Society
• The Rule of Law