Abstract:
The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 and the subsequent travel restrictions instituted by the World Health
Organisation to curtail the spread of the virus saw the disruption of educational activities and the
management thereof, affecting the role of the School Development Committees (SDCs). The number
of SDC meetings to approve procurement and purchase of educational materials was decimated,
henceforth school heads made sole decisions in contrast to the requirements of fiscal policies. This
qualitative case study investigates how the work of SDCs in eight Zimbabwean schools is affected
during COVID-19 and the transition to the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), and then establishes tenable
alternatives to the conditions. To gather information, document analysis and semi-structured interviews
were used. Schools are far from embracing the 4IR despite that SDCs must conduct all school
governance online, just like any other business. The study suggests that educational institutions should
spend money on developing digital infrastructures and educating SDC members on digital capabilities.
This study adds conversation to scholarship on the use of the Internet of Things {IoT) in school
governance.
Description:
The journal is a forum for the discussion of ideas, scholarly opinions and case studies of community
outreach and engagement. Communities are both defined in terms of people found in a given locale as
well as defined cohorts, like the children, the youth, the elderly, and those living with a disability. The
strongest view is that getting to know each community or subcommunity is a function of their deliberate
participation in matters affecting them by the community itself. The journal is produced bi-annually.
