Teachers’ and parents’ experiences regarding the no-fee policy in a historically disadvantaged school

Abstract

Many schools in the Western Cape Province of South Africa have opted to change from a fee-paying school to that of no-fee paying school, due to the small or no income of funding received annually from learners from poor economic backgrounds. The study aimed to investigate whether this school fee system was able to successfully address barriers which the previous system was unable to, and for this reason I addressed the stakeholders who are involved in the implementation of this no-fee school policy. This study aimed to explore the experiences of teachers and parents at the no-fee school well after its transition from feepaying. In summary, the study examined whether the no-fee allocated funds per learner were able to improve the school performance indicators (school facilities, resources, teacher complement, pass rates, infrastructure, etc.), since the change took place. The study applied a qualitative case study methodology to realize its purpose. I used purposeful sampling to select one newly declared no-fee school. From this school, one principal, six teachers and four sets of parents were interviewed on their experiences regarding this policy. Semi-structured interviews and observation with document analysis were triangulated to collect and enrich the data. The study revealed that this no-fee school was able to address the needs of the poor in the Lotus River historically disadvantaged community.