UNIT THREE
Darvesh Karim
Assistant Instructor
Professional Development Center, North
University Road, Konodass, Gilgit.
Ph. No: (+92) 05811-454132-4 Ext: 3017
Fax No: (+92) 05811-454135
Cell No: (+92) 03465419307
Email (Official): darveshkarim@pdcn.edu.pk
Email (Private): dk_hunzai@yahoo.com, darvesh.karim@gmail.com
Online Blogs: www.dkhunza.blogspot.com; www.scribd.com/dk_hunzai
· Classroom tasks (Individual/Group)
· Facilitators’ Input (Slides and other material)
· My Participation at AKU-IED Online thread of Strategic Planning and Development
· Reflections on International Conference on Educational Reforms.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNIT THREE
STRATEGIC PLANNING PORTFOLIO
FACILITATORS’ INPUT
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mANUAL FOR PRODUCING A SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
This manual /work book is a procedural guide for principals or head teachers and planning teams interested in improvement and change in their schools through development planning.
- This manual is adopted from Module “School Development Planning” which is in publication process at IIEP, UNESCO on behalf of ANTRIEP.
- Please go through all the activities given in the manual. In most cases, the space is provided for writing your responses. You can use additional sheets where needed
Before embarking on a development planning process, there are three activities you can carry out to prepare for the process:
- Establish a school development planning team.
- Discuss the readiness of the school for development planning.
- Decide who will be involved and the timeframe for producing the plan.
The first step you should take is to establish a team of people who will work with you on producing the school development plan. It is important that the team is representative of the key stakeholders so you could consider inviting one or more persons from the following groups:
- Teachers
- Support staff
- Parents
- Students
You should write down in the place provided below a brief and clear statement of the Terms of Reference (TORs) for the team so that everyone has a shared understanding of what will be involved.
A team of about 8 is appropriate so you may wish to have 2 from each stakeholder group with the principal as team leader. A good idea would be to request each group to nominate their representatives so that the spirit of democracy is planted from the beginning. Once the team is established it is time to call the first meeting.
You can use this checklist as a tool to identify key issues that can help or impede the process. It would be advisable to ask a number of people or the whole team to complete this checklist and use it as a basis for discussion in your first team meeting.
| Statements | Yes/No |
| The stakeholders’ input will be available | |
| The school data will be ready to be used in decision-making processes | |
| The school recognizes that a change in one part of the organization usually calls for a change in another part | |
| The school is knowledgeable about what other schools are doing to achieve change | |
| The school leadership is knowledgeable about current trends in educational reform | |
| The school leadership is effectively managing human and fiscal resources | |
| The school is not passing through some critical period or activity e.g. annual audit or exam | |
| The commitment and permission from system authorities is available | |
Case study examples: Planning Responsibility
The school has developed a 5 year rolling plan. District Education Office conducts short term training on the preparation of plan to the head teachers and teachers of different schools. The teachers are oriented about the concept of planning from a team of experts. Then these teachers go to their schools and start planning.
In the case of this school, the SMC members, teachers and PTA members sat together and discussed on the areas of necessity and the rough estimate of financial involvement. Then the teachers prepared the first draft plan and discussed in the staff meeting in the first stage. With the ideas of the staffs the plan was revised and discussed in the staff meeting. After the revision it was forwarded to the SMC. The SMC with advisory and PTA members discussed and approved the plan.
Ministry of Education prepares the development plan with the help of the policy makers and educationists for the secondary level and distributes to the government schools.
It contains clear objective related to the development of infrastructure, teacher behavior, learner absenteeism and learner achievement. It is being used as an instrument for mobilization and monitoring.
The following template can be used by the team to decide Who will be involved in various aspects of the planning and When it should occur:
| Planning Phase | Who will be involved? | When? | Why? |
| Visioning Exercise | | | |
| Situation Analysis | | | |
| Objectives formulation | | | |
| Developing an Action Plan | | | |
A vision of a good school has always been stressed as a major element in leadership and planning. You need to engage key stakeholders in the planning process right from this phase.
The vision of 2003-2006 development plan is “to produce quality learners in a conducive learning environment through effective and efficient teachers as well as strong partnership with parents and the community.” This vision statement is a product of consensus of the various stakeholders that participated in the planning meetings. In these meetings, the participants were accorded the opportunity to sound off their opinions, comments, and suggestions and work in small groups to formulate a vision for the school. The different versions of the vision statements were distilled by a small group and translated it into a mission statement as follows: “to provide learners with the basic education in order to lay the foundation for life long learning and services for the common good.”
With the help of the following steps you will be able to develop a shared vision of what the school should be like and how it should function in the future. The purpose of the activity is to develop a school vision.
What should be the characteristics of a good school? (Ask participants to give 8 characteristics).
What should a good school be doing in terms of relations with parents, co-curricular activities, staff development etc.?
What should be in the curriculum of a good school?
What should be the qualities of a graduate from a good school school?
Note: Vision is not a static thing .It keeps on evolving. Vision once articulated does not mean that it will stay there. In one case from India, the head teacher said that “visioning exercise was a regular feature with the staff”.
This is a crucial phase in school development planning. If you are doing planning for your own school, you may feel that you have good idea of the situation. However, we strongly recommend that you carry out a careful and systematic examination of the present situation with participation of the stakeholders. The output of this activity when compared with the school vision from the previous activity will help you to identify the gaps and goals for school improvement.
The school development planning process usually starts with a review of the school’s profile including enrollment, school program/curriculum, community support, trends and opportunities, and problems and issues.
The school has conducted three educational researches aimed at helping improve it. They are as follows: “‘Parents’ perception on Public Elementary education and their Participation in School Activities,” “Effectiveness of an Adapted Design in Teaching ‘Measuring Air Pressure,” “Improving the Reading Ability of Grade 1 Pupils”
You need to carry out an analysis of both the internal and external situation of the school. It is quite helpful to collect hard and soft data on both of these dimensions. Hard data refers to numerical data, official regulations or policy documents whereas soft data refers to people’s expectations and opinions.
| | Soft Data | Hard Data |
| Internal | · Teachers · Students · Committees · Other staff | · Students results · Staff reports · Minutes of meetings · Committees reports · Inventories of books and resources |
| External | · Parents · Community members · People from placement organizations | · BOGs minutes of meetings · System policies · Government policies · International commitments e.g. MDGs, EFA, Child rights · Tracking of graduates |
Carefully consider the following questions while preparing for this activity.
- What aspects of the school will you will focus on? (You may start with whole picture and then zero in on your areas of priority).
- How you will be doing the analysis? (You need to decide on sources of data and tools for collection of data).
- Who will be doing the analysis?
The following steps will guide you through which SWOT and PESTE can be done in conjunction with each other.
This technique will help you to identify trends or forces outside the school that can affect or shape the course of actions undertaken the school. It will also help you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the school.
Pre-primary: The concept and practices regarding Early Childhood Development and pre-primary education are emerging as important developments, but they are still not part of the formal national education structure.
The following template will be useful for recording the trends identified by the participants:
| Politics | Economic | Social | Technology | Education |
| | | | | |
Step 2: From the trends/ forces you have identified what trends are most likely to impact your school and how.
The trends likely to impact your school positively can be marked as ‘opportunities’ and the trends likely to have a negative affect on your school can be marked as ‘threats’.
| Trends | Opportunity/Threat |
| | |
Strengths are the characteristics that allow the school to take advantage of opportunities or reduce the impact of barriers and while weaknesses are the characteristics that could stand in the way of the school taking advantage of opportunities or reducing the impact of barriers.
Team Sprit among the teachers; the teachers are dedicated and are hard working towards the development of the school. Most of them are local (9 teachers are form the same VDC and 9 from neighbor VDCs and municipality out of 23) he feels this is important factor for teachers dedication.
Student motivation and labour. The students have respect towards the teachers and they obey the teachers. They are also motivated by the prospect of good achievement.
SMC member and the parents attach their prestige with the hard work of the school and its success: They are proud that the school has a place prestige in rural Bhaktapur. All the members of the managing committee, PTA members, teachers and parents speak in one voice that there is a teamwork, unity and involvement of all stakeholders in making important decision. And there is transparency in the financial and administrative activities.
The school has been doing better rapidly in terms of schools leaving Examination results: The pass rate of this school in SLC in 2001, 2002 and 2003 are about 30, 59 % and 67 % receptively. The national pas percent of SLC has remained about 32 in these three years. Currently this school is in the fourth position among the public secondary schools of Bhaktapur. Extra coaching classes since 2002 has helped the school to achieve better. The school invites experts from outsides to ensure that the students do better.
The school maintains a regular calendar for co-curricular and extra curricular activities: It conducts quiz, debate, spelling oratory contest regularly from May to October 2003. The school stands first and third in oratory and folk song competition in the resource centre based primary school contest. Similarly at secondary level it stands first among 16 schools from the neighboring VDCs organised by Krishna Baukala Memorial Trust. This school organized a science exhibition on the occasion of school anniversary every year.
Teachers and head teachers felt that ensuring learning of quality for 535 students was difficult nay impossible with just three teachers inclusive of the head teachers (one Siksha Mitra had joined just a fortnight back). Low literacy and poverty had turned parents oblivious of their important role in the wholesome development of there wards’ personality. Teachers alone could not be able to do much.
Another difficulty was shortage of space. Three regular classrooms for five classes were inadequate. Rooms were small. Occupancy of space per child was poor. They must have ample space to move about.
You can ask following simple questions:
- What are our current strengths? (Write down key strengths)
- What are our current weaknesses?
| | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Internal | ||
| External | Opportunities | Threats |
- Strengths-opportunities: This will lead you to identify options for maximizing the strengths of school. ( write down at least one strategy)
- Strengths-threats: This will lead you to identify options for reducing the impact of threats. ( write down at least one strategy)
- Weaknesses-opportunities: This will lead you to identify options for compensating weaknesses with the help of opportunities. ( write down at least one strategy)
- Weaknesses-threats: This will lead you to identify areas that you must avoid. ( write down at least one strategy)
Identify the documents that could provide information on the current situation and carry out an analysis of them. The issues raised in the SWOT analysis can be a useful guide in identification of documents and developing a framework of analysis. For example, if you wish to explore school-parent relationships the following documents could be a useful resource for objective analysis of the situation:
- ToRs of PTA ( if it has any formal structure)
- SMC record ( showing parents representation and contribution in the body)
- Record of complaints lodged by parents
- Minutes of meetings with the parents
- Applications for school leaving certificates
Review of the performance of the students was a common practice after the examinations. If such review showed any unsatisfactory performance necessary steps were taken. One example can be shown here. After the second term examination in 2002, the review meeting observed that 37 students of grade IV (out of 89) could not pass in mathematics. The teachers identified two reasons. Firstly, the respective teacher did not take much care to the weaker students, and secondly, the students were not much attentive and punctual in their mathematics classes. The head teacher firstly asked the respective teacher to show cause regarding the occurrence. He was advised to be careful in this regard. The issue was also discussed in the SMC meeting. The SMC meeting took three measures for this. The respective parents were informed about the concern of the SMC. The teachers had a meeting with the respective parents and asked them to take care at home.
I found that the school record has been meticulously prepared, the records of the past five years showed zero percentage dropout. The only children who left the school were transfer case who were given transfer certificate (TC) on leaving the school, as per administrative account no children had left the school on any other reason.
At this stage a careful analysis is needed to determine what the gaps are between future vision (desired state) and current reality. This may result in long wish list of areas you would like to see improved. However, a small number of priorities must be selected as it is not possible to do every thing at once and resources are usually scarce. After establishing priorities the feasibility of goals should be considered in terms of availability of resources, time, money and people, etc.
The following process can be used to determine goals and priorities:
- Are the goals realistic and desirable?
- Do the goals reflect the issues surfaced in situation analysis? ( Stakeholders’ analysis, PESTE, SWOT, document analysis)
- Do the goals match with the vision and values of the school?
- Do the goals maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses and take advantage of opportunities while minimizing threats.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
To provide school education to all school-age children of its area,
To upgrade the achievement level of students as high as 100 percent and maintain it,
To make physical facilities favorable to help the teaching,
To introduce it as a model school in the district.
- Teachers work according to the code of ethics.
- To design activities within the school to improve innovative skills of children.
- To keep high standards at public examination results and student performance.
- To make school plant pleasant.
- To train children for a life style which value local heritage
- To create a learning environment in the school to learn English language.
- All the students in the school getting the computer training and use of computers as a learning tool.
- To build daughters who love the school through good teacher-pupil relations.
Example:
Goal 1: To develop school – parent relationships
Objective #2: To constitute fully functional PTA by the end of next year
Objective #3: To involve the community about school functions
Following the example, convert the goals into objectives. Each objective should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound)
Our knowledge of best practice from the case studies reminds us to be conscious of the availability of resources and clarity of the roles i.e. who will be doing what?
| Action Steps | Who will do it? | By When? | Resources required? |
| | | | |
One of the most important lesson from principles of good practice is to plan for monitoring and make it part of the action plan. What you have to do is to develop criteria (or indicators) of success for each activity. For example, if the activity is meeting with the parents, the number parents invited and the number who actually attended can serve as indicators.
The school has constituted as many as 38 committees. These are related to coordination, school calendar, admission, time-table, examination, discipline, mess, co-curricular activities, audio-visual aids, water, maintenance and repair, vehicle maintenance, electricity, library, health and hygiene, publicity, cultural programs, local purchase, assembly, career guidance, safety and security, pace-setting activities, information technology, public relations, sports, etc. Depending upon the requirement, one or more than one teacher was included in a particular committee. The principal himself was a member of seven committees. The students were represented in three committees. The mess committee consisted of all house masters (teachers), staff nurse, school prefect (student), all house captains (students), and the mess helper. All house captains were represented in the safety and security committee, and the school prefect in the maintenance and repair committee.
Besides effective planning, successful leaders also need to practice successful monitoring of the school programs, teachers and students. It is observed that Ahmad has a plan and the importance of plan is also communicated frequently through planned activities. The head would also have frequent meetings with his assistant head teachers to ask about the development and progress of the various programs.
The case studies showed that a strong mechanism of monitoring exists in the successful schools. That mechanism clearly identifies that ‘who will monitor’ (principal/section heads/committees) but more clarity can be sought by using the following template.
| Action Steps | What to monitor? | How to monitor it? | Who will monitor? |
| | | | |
| Action Steps | Action Planning | Monitoring Plan | ||||
| Who? | When? | Resources | What to monitor | When to monitor | Who? | |
| | | | | | | |
This activity will bring all pieces of your school development plan together. After preparation of the plan you need to publish it in the form of a document, modify it (when needed) and use it as road map for improvement.
The school action plan is sometimes called the school calendar. The following is an example of a ‘school calendar’.
The annual calendar of school activities depicted academic activities, milestones, unit tests and indicators of continuous evaluation, celebration of special days, inter-house competition and date for teacher-parent meets.
| | Yes /No |
| Are objectives/actions aligned with the vision/values of the school? | |
| Will completing the actions produce the intended outcome? | |
| Does implementation of the plan require any change in the management structure? | |
| Are the resources required for actions in place? | |
| Can progress be measured? | |
| Is the action plan likely to improve students’ learning? | |
| Will this plan be shared with all stakeholders? | |
| | |
The case studies of successful schools show different patterns regarding the process of school development planning. However, there are some common themes:
- Successful schools have a visible and explicit plan for improvement developed through their own processes. For example: Sri Lanka, Pakistan & Philippines.
- The plan is developed by the school with the support of the system. Nepal is a good example of this.
- No systematic and formal process of planning exists throughout the whole system though leadership at school level has a clear understanding of the future plans and shares those goals clearly. For example: India and BRAC schools in Bangladesh.
- Some systems develop the goals and the school does action planning. Example: Pakistan
The whole idea of school development planning is not simply to finish the document and say that you have ‘done it’; but to implement it. The plan should not be viewed as a static thing but rather it is a living, breathing document that can be changed as needed. Be sure to make changes if goals are not relevant or no longer needed. A good way to implement a plan is to integrate it into all activities of the school or in other words make it an integral part of the culture of the school (an important lesson from good practices).
In this module we have given you an overview of school development planning, provided you with some good practices of planning and outlined a process for you to follow in order to produce a development plan for your school.
We hope that you have enjoyed working through the module and we trust that you will apply the ideas to achieve continuous school improvement for the benefit of your students and your school community.
Babur , M.; Safdar , Q. & Retallick , J. (In press). IIEP, UNESCO on behalf of ANTRIEP (Asian Network of Training and Research Institutions in Educational Planning)
Posts by Darvesh Karim
| Subject | Forum Name | Date & Time |
| Reflections, Day 8, June 07 | 6/9/2008 5:23:21 AM | |
| Field Visit, Day 1 | 5/14/2008 12:15:52 PM | |
| Field Visit, Day 1 | 5/14/2008 4:34:31 AM | |
| Field Visit, Day 1 | 5/7/2008 12:30:24 PM | |
| Reflections on Day 6, April 22, 2008 | 4/25/2008 11:05:59 AM | |
| Reflections on Day 6, April 22, 2008 | 4/23/2008 5:28:58 AM | |
| hmmmmmmm.....So what about Day 5 ??? | 4/18/2008 8:59:56 AM | |
| Conference...as an opportunity window! | 4/14/2008 12:21:49 PM | |
| Conference...as an opportunity window! | 4/12/2008 7:13:19 PM | |
| Conference...as an opportunity window! | 4/12/2008 7:07:30 PM | |
| Jokes, verses, quotations , proverbs.....let us expand our thinking! | 4/12/2008 10:36:12 AM | |
| Jokes, verses, quotations , proverbs.....let us expand our thinking! | 4/12/2008 10:34:18 AM | |
| How was your DAY 4? (April 08, 2008) | 4/12/2008 10:11:37 AM | |
| Let us talk about anything ! | 4/12/2008 9:28:31 AM | |
| Let us talk about anything ! | 4/5/2008 7:28:44 AM | |
| Reflections, Day 3 (April 01, 2008) | 4/5/2008 6:02:22 AM | |
| I Love My Readings! | 4/4/2008 6:57:13 PM | |
| Let us talk about anything ! | 4/4/2008 6:16:17 PM | |
| Let us talk about anything ! | 4/4/2008 5:55:21 PM | |
| Reflections, Day 3 (April 01, 2008) | 4/4/2008 5:52:08 PM | |
| I Love My Readings! | 3/31/2008 5:42:43 PM | |
| How was your Day 2: Quick reflections! | 3/29/2008 6:56:07 AM | |
| How was your Day 2: Quick reflections! | 3/25/2008 12:52:37 PM | |
| Reflections on Day I | 3/25/2008 11:41:16 AM | |
| Let us talk about anything ! | 3/25/2008 5:08:39 AM | |
| Let us talk about anything ! | 3/24/2008 10:20:14 AM | |
| How was your Day 2: Quick reflections! | 3/24/2008 8:03:48 AM | |
| Let us talk about anything ! | 3/24/2008 7:49:07 AM | |
| Reflections on Day I | 3/22/2008 11:10:15 AM | |
| Reflections on Day I | 3/4/2008 11:44:37 AM |
©Copyright 2005 AKU-IED
Address questions and comments to ied.olwebsupport@aku.edu
REFLECTION ON 3RD DAY OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATIONAL REFORMS:
The Presentation initiated with a question and its answers;
Why reforms are needed?
· Because of the impact of Education on quality of life.
· Personal and community health.
· Capacity to address life relevant issues.
· Economic growth.
· Employability.
· Orientation to future.
Principals to follow in reforms:
· Intrinsic strength to bring about a positive impact.
· Construction of socio-economic.
· Commitment.
· Continuity.
· Cohesive and consistent.
Why educational reforms failed in pakistan?
· Tunnel view of reforms failed in Pakistan.
· Fragility and lack of vision and accountability.
· Reforms are not informed by research.
· Re-inventing wheel approach.
· One size fits all frameworks.
· Inadequate institutional capacity.
· Poor management and governance of project.
· Lack of reform culture.
REFLECTION ON 2ND DAY OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATIONAL REFORMS:
Importance of Quality Education:
Education is the right of every human being, because it is a source of International economic power and globalization of learning outcomes.
Educational Reforms Process:
The process is complex to delineate and implement changes in the policy. The process relates to Educational reforms through involvement of Executives and Administrative organizations. It is not negative if channelized and controlled.
Players in Educational Reforms:
· Federal/Provincial/District Governments.
· Education Ministry.
· Governors/Chief Ministers.
· Education Ministers.
· Institutional heads.
· Educational Experts.
· Political/Religious Parties.
· Teachers’ Unions.
· Student Organizations.
· Charity Organizations.
· NGOs and civil society organizations.
· Legislative and judiciary.
Foundations of Politics of Education Reforms:
· Religion – philosophy and ideology i.e. essentialism, progressivism, pragmatism etc. (capitalism, socialism, Islamic socialism)
· Economic conditions of the country.
· Geo political situations.
· Customs and social values.
· History and traditions in Education.
· Political philosophies.
· Globalization.
· International treaties, declarations and conventions.
Areas of Education Reforms:
· Vision, aims and goals of Education.
· Standards to learning outcomes (National and International)
· Access and Equity in Education at different levels (Gender and disadvantaged groups)
· Quality of Educational inputs.
· Educational processes.
· Financing Education.
· Curriculum and instructional material.
· Level and nature of stakeholders’ participation in different process levels.
· Capacity building and human resource development.
· Role of private sector in Education.
· Teacher quality.
· Medium of instruction.
· Role of teachers and students.
Quantities Reforms:
· Access reforms – opening new schools, increase enrolment etc.
· Quick cost beneficent results.
· Easily acceptable to all.
· No threat to any stakeholder.
Qualitative Reforms:
· Most concentrated costs and slow benefits.
· Enhancing learning outcomes.
· Less favored by politicians in power.
Obstacles to reforms:
· Heavy Patronage.
· Political parties prefer fast results.
· Some direct players resist quality reforms.
· Political instability.
Documents shaped the Educational Reforms:
· Reports and National Educational Policies since 1947 – 2001.
Reforms Focus:
· Political, ideological basis.
· Incremental approach.
Recommendations:
· Political participation should be viewed positively.
· Ensure participation of all stakeholders.
· Balance between traditional and structural reforms.
· Educational leaders must learn/be trained in handling the political elements.
· Combine fast benefits access and slow benefits.
· Incremental and priority based strategy.
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