Free access to quality education in primary and secondary schools is the President’s flagship programme. The principals of secondary schools yesterday started their annual National Conference at the Cabenda Hotel, New Signal Road in Freetown. The theme of this year’s five-day confab is the role of principals as school leaders and managers.
In his keynote address, Dennis Sylvester Luseni said, “The challenges in today’s schools are increasing in frequency, complexity and intensity influencing a demand for a new level of excellence from school leaders. These demands have become so critical that there is a resurgence of leadership preparation programs in many universities worldwide with Sierra Leone not an exception.”
He explained that a school leader is one who understands that change is always present, and the external environment of an educational institution will continually impose new challenges.
“The path towards change isn’t serendipitous but a careful, deliberate, calculated effort towards meeting the needs of a global community.”
Luseni said according to Guthrie and Schueman in their book “Successful School Leaders”, leadership is a combination of two kinds of behaviors and a leader’s effectiveness involves; “the first is to task-focused. This is where a leader initiates actions for the purpose of goal attainment and the second is relationship-focused. This is where leaders primarily show consideration for people and interpersonal dynamics.”
He further explained that leaders move their subordinates along a desired path of behaviors towards attainment of organizational goals. In this path/goal theory, leaders assess work and worker’s needs and adjust their own behaviors based on the situational variables. In the words of Bill Gates, he quote “’Leaders develop people”’.
Looking at principals as managers, Luseni said, “Principals ensure that the school environment is conducive to students’ learning, ensuring the safety of students and staff.”
He explained that as a manager you must have guidelines and procedures, have a school wide discipline plan, be fair and consistent with every decision you make. Make teachers discipline their students. Call parents about discipline problems and document your discipline problems. Remove graffiti from the school immediately. Have a crisis management plan in place in the event of an emergency. Enclose your school as much as possible. Consider school ID badges for students and teachers. As a manager, you must work with staff to initiate and facilitate on-going curriculum review and development, keeping pace with educational trends and policies of the Ministry.
The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Alpha Timbo, remarked, “The task ahead is daunting.” He urged all teachers to work diligently to ensure that the government’s flagship programme becomes a success.
OG/19/6/18
By Ophaniel Gooding
Wednesday June 20, 2018.
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