Blame the principals - Poor leadership at the root of some underperforming schools
Published:Sunday | August 28, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter
POOR LEADERSHIP has again been identified as one of the major factors causing the underperformance of several schools across the island.
Senior educators have agreed that despite all the other factors facing students and teachers, better leadership from principals could lead to improvements in the quality of graduates at all levels in the country's education system.
"At the end of the day, what you prioritise in the school is what will happen. If you think your core business is teaching and learning, that is what will happen, and you don't need an hour to look at every teacher," Elaine Foster-Allen, principal of Shortwood Teachers' College, told a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum.
Foster-Allen, who once headed the National School Inspectorate, is adamant that if persons in the education system took more responsibility rather than assigning blame, there would be improvement.
She was supported by Dr Tamika Benjamin, a lecturer at the Mico University College, who has served as a teacher and a principal.
Benjamin told the forum that having entered the teaching profession, she taught for four years at a traditional high school and was evaluated only once.
"I am not surprised that you can see a correlation between the schools that are performing well and those where appraisals are taking place," said Benjamin.
Minister vows action
Education Minister Andrew Holness has long accepted that the performance of principals is reflected in the performance of schools, and has vowed to take action against non-performers.
In May, Holness announced that the Government was speeding up plans to implement new management strategies to make principals more efficient.
While lamenting the poor level of management demonstrated by many principals, Holness accepted that many of them are appointed to head schools without being trained.
Against that background, the Jamaica Teaching Council and the education ministry are working on a programme to train potential principals.
"We are instituting a national college for educational leadership, and where we are going is that all aspiring principals will need to go through the programmes at that college," Dr Winsome Gordon, chief executive officer of the teaching council, told the Editors' Forum.
"The programmes will be based on the practice of leadership, and come the 15th of September, the director will be in place," Gordon added.