Investing in school principals pays off, particularly in impoverished areas

Mail & Guardian

2 days ago

Children in areas such as Lavender Hill on Cape Town are exposed to gang violence and poverty. Photo: David Harrison/M&G
During break time at Levana Primary School in Lavender Hill, Cape Town, children playing outside the classroom mimic the noise of ambulance and police sirens, sounds they hear every day. At least there are no longer shootings on the school property. There have been fatal shootings outside the school — with one case involving a learner. But, since 2022, no one has been attacked on the school's grounds.
'Gang violence is a huge problem at our school. But it was a far bigger problem before the wall went up,' says Shamiegh Charity, the principal of the school, who was appointed in 2020.
The problems the residents of Lavender Hill face daily are poverty and unemployment, and drug and alcohol abuse is rife. Many of the children at the school do not have adequate clothing, food and care at home.
After one particularly traumatising incident of gang violence at the school, Charity discussed it with her mentor and coach. 'He said, 'what can you control; what can you do?'' recalls Shamiegh.
This led to her approaching funders and private donors to raise the R7.9 million she needed to build a wall. It couldn't be just any wall. It had to be high enough to prevent shooters on the roofs of neighbouring houses from taking aim at targets across the school yard. Charity climbed onto the roof of a neighbouring building herself to ensure she knew the exact height the wall had to be.
Charity's mentor and coach is Keith Richardson, the chief executive of the Principals Academy Trust which, in association with the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB), runs a principal training and development programme in the marginalised areas of Cape Town.
Even though it has been years since Charity graduated from the programme, she is still in contact with Richardson and chats regularly to other participating principals on their WhatsApp group.
'We are still helping each other,' she says.
This demonstrates the lasting effect of a powerful programme, which combines coaching, personal development and skills training. This combination has become something of a recipe of success as illustrated in a case study called: Empowering Principals To Transform Schools, which recently won gold at the European Foundation for Management Development's Excellence in Practice (EiP) Awards in 2025. The case study explores the effect of this programme over 12 years and the results were improved academic outcomes, as well as stronger learner development and school cultures at a range of marginalised schools.
So many education initiatives have been launched in South Africa, and one cannot help wondering why this particular one seems to be working.
'I think it is the visionary mindset of the principals — especially the retired ones — who are using their knowledge and life experience as a catalyst for change,' says Rayner Canning, the director of business development and executive education at UCT's Graduate School of Business.
A recent news
It is true that teacher burnout is a problem around the world and not only in South Africa. This has led to many studies on how to alleviate teacher stress. Coaching interventions have been found to be beneficial.
To effect change, schools can begin with something as basic as setting up a soup kitchen because many children often arrive at school hungry. Even at schools where most parents are unemployed, there are examples of principals who have started conversations to involve residents and mosques, for instance, to help start school feeding schemes.
The wide-ranging effects of some of these initiatives are impressive: not only are children more alert and responsive, but parents become involved and local residents are more invested in the school's success. This reflects the effect principals can have.
But ensuring that such change is made to the bigger educational ecosystem means taking an intentional and structured approach to developing educators, teaching them the kind of personal and professional skills to effect transformation in their schools.
'No one can turn a school around other than the school principal,' says Principals Academy Trust co-founder Bruce Probyn. 'Not the national or the local education department. It's all on the principal who understands the school, the teachers and the learners, the context of the school and the community.'
We need to help our principals, who in turn inspire their teachers, who are then able to teach their learners effectively. In this way, we seed an educational system where children get a quality education even at under-resourced schools — and good teachers are retained and turned back from the brink of burn-out or emigrating to greener pastures.
Jodie Martin is the executive education head of department at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business.