18th Saint Antonios Primary School in Limassol and Future Changes - Research Paper Example

Saint Antonios Primary School in Limassol and Future Challenges/Changes Introduction School leadership and management are concerned with the improvements of abilities of teachers, students and management people who are involved in the school operations. The basic purpose of leadership and management is to achieve the goals for better future. The very term school leadership was introduced in the late 20th century. The very purpose of the school leadership is to find out the ways through the adoption of which the school administration can better solve the problems and improve the overall quality of the school and it also paves the ways for introducing new reforms. For better solutions and reforms there is the need of some checks that would help the administration to see the matters seriously. The school leadership is actually exercised by the administrative and management body in an institution (Hall, V., and G. Southworth, 1997). So it comes in the domain of administration and management to control all the matters which are related to quality and satisfaction in learning system. Leadership is very vital in terms of evaluating the overall performance of a system and it demands some dynamic features from the concerned body and individuals who are working in collaboration with the administrative and management body. The management body in a school is normally headed by the principal (Hall, V., and G. Southworth, 1997) and the opinions of other body members are also taken into account in a well planned way if appropriate. Further in the world the management body is normally divided into normally two teams which induce a sense of competition in the environment. The competitive environment is very essential for good academic, sports, management performance and to improve the rate of overall satisfaction among all the groups i.e. faculty or teachers, administration, parents and students. Recently the different governments in the world are taking the issue very seriously and therefore the management bodies are introducing very flexible policies for education purposes. For example there is the need to select highly educated people who would do their best in changing the traditional scenarios and they would adopt up-to-dated policies for bringing the nation as a prominent figure in front of the global community. And there is also the need to change the policies according to the changing demands. Aims and Objectives As in our research we are focusing the terms leadership and management in schools so it is very essential to understand and elaborate the aims of the research. Before proceeding to the next step there is the need to understand the basic difference between these terminologies. The successful leadership is basically dependent upon organizational relations. Here relations are taken in terms of human interactions so it’s the duty of a leader that to provide the ways which reflect human vision and energy. A person can only be called as a leader if he has the courage to take initiatives or he has the ability to take charge and he has adopt such policies through which he would be able to transform dreams into reality. So the very aim of the essay is to understand the challenges of the global requirements and how these challenges can be solved with better leadership and management. A leader is one, who can influence others, has deeper understanding of the whole organization, and also has control over himself and then he must devise a plan to work according to his orders and policies. But whenever we have to think about the management platform then in that very case we have to focus the daily operations. These operations consist of staff supervision, proper planning, organization, solutions to the problems and it also consists of program and personnel evaluation. The very purpose of management in a school is to develop a very proactive type of organization that would provide better opportunities to its customers. Management and leadership are the part and parcel of an organization without integration of both the terms it is not possible to get better results in schooling or simply in the domain of education. So the very aim and objective of my research is to bring forth the basic factors regarding leadership and management which play a vital role in managing the schools or educational institutions. Further the research is focusing the challenges which are being faced by the educational community and how these challenges are tackled by the governing bodies. Present Educational System in Cyprus Educational administration in Cyprus is centralized. In Cyprus the council of ministers is the highest authority for educational policies. Ministry of Education and Culture is the body that defines the elaborated syllabus. For defining the syllabus of specific subjects the inspectors and teachers are involved who work closely with the syllabus committee. Into the public sector the enterprise education is mainly introduced after 1960s. Since then the changes are occurring in the syllabus in a very fast pace. Ministry of Education and Culture is adopting innovative ways for the introduction of new and upgraded syllabus. Actually the Ministry of Education and Culture wants to bring the enterprise education in Cyprus at the level of European Enterprise Education. A revolutionary change was introduced in upper secondary education in the Cyprus Educational System. A Unified Lyceum System was also established for enterprise education. The very purpose of Unified Lyceum System was to consider the changes in the teaching methodologies which are happening over the globe. The curriculum was reformed to improve both general and subject specific learning as well as personal electives and offer a more learner centered basis of education. The Unified lyceums are structured to provide common core subjects compulsory to all students in the cycle. Optional stream subjects chosen by the students aim to provide a thorough background knowledge and enrichment and also subjects aiming at satisfying their interests and enriching their experiences. The revolutionary programs are also introduced at upper secondary level. The Ministry of Education and Culture conducts annual competition on education domain. The students are asked to write an essay on a particular subject and through such a competition students have to acquire more knowledge and experience of the said subject. It also enhances the abilities of the students in such a way that students will feel free to participate in international competitions also. Ministry of Education and Culture is trying its best to introduce innovative ways of education across all the levels so that the student community would prove fruitful in strengthening the overall economy of the country in future. Ministry of Education and Culture has introduced several changes at lower levels for example at the initial stages the Ministry of Education and Culture has introduced the different types of days e.g. teacher day, parent day, family day, mother day and many others and due to the intervention of these events the curiosity of the students raises in a very fast pace. This thing enhances the overall abilities of the students. Saint Antonios Primary School Saint Antonios Primary School is located in Limassol Cyprus. The school is a multicultural primary school and is educating the students belonging to other ethnic origins. The governing body of the school consists of Director, Assistant Director, Teachers, Musical, The basic purpose of management and leadership at Saint Antonios Primary School is to deal with children. Saint Antonios Primary School is a sort of social educational institute or system. All the processes, purposes and prevailing products in the school are focusing the children. These processes and purposes serve as standards in Saint Antonios Primary School and the basic purpose of these standards is to lead the staff and to control or manage the children according to the plans (DCSF, 2000) who are studying in the school. Saint Antonios Primary School is an organization where knowledge is for both teachers and students. To teach the children is also a sort of learning for one who is teaching (Kakia Angelidou) and this teaching also covers the methods and techniques which must be adopted at the time of delivering the lecture to the students. So when a teacher guides others actually he himself will also be learning from the very scenario of guidance (Kakia Angelidou). Saint Antonios Primary School is a place where the children have to live on social grounds and they have to create positive relations in this social situation. In Saint Antonios Primary School the adults have to interact and build relationships on social grounds. Directors and teacher focus to interact with other team members for proper planning and collaboration. People at Saint Antonios Primary School have better knowledge about their standings or they know better that where he or she is going. A good leader ever tries to collaborate with his colleagues and shares all the information or maters with them. The contribution of each and every role is very essential at his or her level. There are three types of roles at Saint Antonios Primary School which are described as: People Dealing Information Flow and Decision Making The first role at Saint Antonios Primary School is concerned with people dealing. For this role the leader must be competent one who must cover the several areas of human relations. The leader at this level serves as a key role to cope with the issues and he or she heads the meetings at different levels like meetings with parents, curriculum meetings and he or she also plays a vital role in supervising, selecting, training, and motivating the administrative and teaching staff at Saint Antonios Primary School. The second role at Saint Antonios Primary School is concerned about information flow. The process of information flow is to share the crucial information with parents, governing body and teachers. And this sort of information is mostly related with the overall performance of a student, the curriculum which is being followed and sharing of information, to parents and management at lower and upper level, about newly adopted educational policies. The third role is focusing a leader who would take part warmly in decision making. At Saint Antonios Primary School the decision makers are Director and Assistant Directors. It is the responsibilities of director and assistant directors to recognize all the decisions and on the basis of these decisions all the future operations are planned (Tony Bush, 2003). The changes in present times in education domain are vital for improving the performance of students and staff at all levels. So due to these changes certain leadership methodologies at adopted by the senior management of Saint Antonios Primary School. There is an instructional theory which is concerned with changes and empowering the followers about the change. The second theory which is adopted is the transformational theory and this theory is also concerned with the changes and empowering followers about the current changes. And some other methodologies which are concerned with the tasks and functions that need to be carried out efficiently. The Role of Director at Saint Antonios Primary School The director at Saint Antonios Primary School is responsible for the managerial and administrative operations. The managerial duties of the role include: He has to set the overall aims. He has to select and appoint the new staff. He has to deploy and manage the staff i.e. teaching and non-teaching. He has to determine, organize, and implement the appropriate curriculum (Geoff Southworth, 2008). He has to review the overall work and organize the school. He has to evaluate standards which are concerned with teaching and learning. He has to supervise and participate in events which are set for teachers’ appraisals. He ensures the proper training of the staff. He ensures the proper support of the newly inducted teachers. He has to allocate, control and account and financial and material resources of the school. The Role of Assistant Directors at Saint Antonios Primary School They have to accomplish all the technical tasks which are specific to the main purpose of the school and they are mostly concerned with the teaching and learning (Geoff Southworth, 2008). The Assistant Directors at Saint Antonios Primary School have to accomplish all the conceptual tasks which are related to the control and administration of the school for example the appointment and deployment of newly inducted staff, establishing appropriate contractual relationships with service providers and they also have to manage the issues of financial management and resource allocation management. They have to accomplish the human relations tasks that involve decision making, policy making and staff development. They also perform external relation tasks which enable them to control the flow of information into and out of the school. They also have to manage the legitimate interventions in the work of the school for parents, governors and other community. The Saint Antonios Primary School is a sort of social system and we can consider it as linkages of inputs and these inputs are from the external environments which include materials, information and people. To control this social system there is the need of some feedback from the external or internal environment. So an organization can only be effective if would adapt both the internal and external environmental factors. Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn describe nine characteristics of all the open systems (Fred C. Lunenburg, Allan C. Ornstein’s). 1. Importation of Energy 2. The Throughput 3. The Output 4. Cycles of Events 5. Negative Entropy 6. Feedback 7. Dynamic Homeostasis 8. Differentiation 9. Equifinality As from the first clause of open system it is evident that open systems take energy from external environment and this energy is in the form of people, material and information. The imported energy is used to build a product and training is provided to the people, services are provided and materials are processed. When an open system is used they have to export product into the market. In case of Saint Antonios Primary School the output is the knowledge, abilities, skills and attitudes of the students. Actually in it the patterns of activities are recycled. Same is the case in a school when the students are graduated they are brought as a product into the market and they join the schools and this new energy triggers a new cycle (Fred C. Lunenburg, Allan C. Ornstein’s). From entropy every one is familiar it is a sort of distortion or disorganization that ultimately leads towards end. But it’s not so in case of Saint Antonios Primary School because the schools are public organizations and people have to participate in the activities of the organization so there would not be the means that would deteriorate the department. Feedback is a sort of control mechanism and in Saint Antonios Primary School the feedback is used to measure the overall performance of the organization and it also helps to find out deviations from the standards (Fred C. Lunenburg, Allan C. Ornstein’s). So the open system adaption will prove very fruitful in Saint Antonios Primary School. Because it provides better opportunity to understand the product needs, the product demand in the market and also provides better opportunities to get the right feedback negative or positive about the product. As our school is a multi cultural place where the students of other nationalities are also studying so there is the need of Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The very purpose of PISA is to assess the abilities of foreign students in the domain of Greek, Turkish Language, and Mathematics. The test of Turkish Language is essential because the Turkish as a National Language has been ceased since 1963 in Cyprus after the withdrawal of Turkish Cypriots. The very purpose of the PISA is to found out (http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/edcounts/ frequently_asked_questions/pisa) : Does a student have the abilities to meet the future challenges? Are the students able to analyse well and can reason and communicate the ideas? Either the students are able to continue learning in the whole life or not. Is there the need to adopt some other ways that would prove fruitful for their learning? This test is conducted to check the abilities of the students for education. Such a system can be adopted at Saint Antonios Primary School to check the abilities of the students in different fields. It is very necessary due to the multicultural environment of the students. The Turkish community is also engage in learning at Saint Antonios Primary School. The PISA is very useful for assessing the abilities of such students who belong to other nationalities (http://www.educationcounts .govt.nz/edcounts/frequently_asked_questions/pisa) There are some other requirements which are very essential for the overall improvement of the system for example at lower level the major focus must be given to the instruments which are being used during learning process and these instruments are actually the real life entities that would play a crucial role in enhancing the abilities of the students. There are several other ways for improving the functionality of a school for example admin must allocate the resources in the school equitably. Get rid of piles of papers in the school. Consider the administrators as facilitators. There is need to plan before you build. There is need to use the yellow pages. Buy what you need, when you need it, at the best price you can get. Have a vision, plan how to get there. Fixed assets include all properties, vehicles, equipments and building contents. Accounting for these fixed assets involves tracking and reconciling additions and deletions to property in the inventory (http://www.window.state.tx.us/tpr/tspr/t9.html). The factors which force the changes in an educational system are many but the one and the most prominent is the factor of economy. The economy of a country can only excel if the nation would be an educated one and the nation has well familiarity with the existing business needs. Further the political scenarios are also vital for introducing the changes in education because a country or a nation wants to spread its ideas for the sake of it’s national integrity then again the policies are adopted to change the curriculum that would be able to provide sufficient grounds for future. Another factor is the prevailing social system i.e. if the system is not properly streamlined then there would be the need to consider the ways that would yield some positive enhancement in the social system also. “There are numerous difficulties when we try to interpret local differences that come from a complex combination of geographical, historical, economic, demographic and political factors” (Broccolichi et al 2007:32). Conclusion The number of schools that are adopting the collegiate mode of operation is increasing. Senior management do not work in isolation anymore. Today, the leadership of schools is usually in the hands of a senior management team rather than a single person. In the case of small school, this may be a matter of the whole staff working collaboratively. Democratic forms of leadership offer good staff development opportunities because in order to make a sensible decision a group needs to study the situation carefully. Dean also stresses that involving children in the decision-making is also beneficial since part of the school’s task is to train young people for life in a democratic society. The changes in the education systems are required to meet the challenges of the time so that a nation can prove itself in the existing scenarios. An educated nation brings prosperity while a sleeping nation ever yields problems for its coming generations. Bibliography ---------. 2010. Who is who in School Management. http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/educationandlearning/schools/management/default.htm ---------. 2009. Leadership and Management in Primary Schools. http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/09/leadership-and-management-in-primary-schools.html ---------. 2000. Top Ten Ways to Improve Public Schools. http://www.window.state.tx.us/tpr/tspr/t9.html ---------. 2008. 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The children’s plan: Building brighter futures. London: Department for Children, Schools and Families. Fred C. Lunenburg,Allan C. Ornsteins. Educational Administration: Concepts and Practices. Fifth Edition. Geoff Southworth. 2008. Primary School Leadership Today and Tomorrow. School Leadership and Management 28, no. 5: 413_ 434 Hall, V., and G. Southworth. 1997. Headship: A review of the literature. School Leadership and Management 17, no. 2: 151_/70. Hill, P. 2001. What principals need to know about teaching and learning. Victoria: Association of Registered Teachers of Victoria. Hughes, M. 1976. The professional-as-administrator: The case of the secondary school head. In The role of the head, ed. R.S. Peters. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Kakia Angelidou.----------. 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