Thinking About Excellence in School Education

‘Begin with the End in Mind’, is the Second Habit of Highly Effective People advocated by Steven Covey in his book Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.  The various esteemed speakers at the 2^nd Annual Conference on School Education reminded us of the magnitude of this statement.  Speakers proposed through their arguments that the purpose of education is ‘that of preparing our children through a holistic exposition for child development to become leaders and value-creating citizens of their generation’.

This proposition is a worthy but audacious vision.  But do we comprehend the purpose effectively and in all its dimensions?  What would the next generation of the world be like – in terms of economy, politic, sociology, technology? How would the challenges of that day and age be different to the challenges that are facing the adults today?  What would be the state of technology and the effects of globalization in the next twenty years?  Only with a thorough comprehension of the conditions of that generation can we truly understand what to prepare our children for.  Do we have that clarity of thought to effectively prepare our children to become leaders of tomorrow?  Unlikely.  Without a deep appreciation of tomorrow, the education system will not be able to create leaders; rather the output would be out-of-place citizens unprepared to manage the complexities of their present and future! 

This thesis was an eye-opener for many of the 600 principals gathered in the three-day conference organized by Edu-Excellence on the subject of “Excellence in School Education”.  

Starting To Think About School Improvement

The school system of today was equated with a manufacturing line, where the education system in its endeavour to develop successful students who are capable of scoring well in all subjects – have actually promoted a cookie-cutter model creating clones.  The related challenges and deficiencies embedded in school education were well articulated.  But we all know this and are part of this system, direct or indirect influencers and participants to the education system – as educators, governors, parents and as concerned citizens. 

The problem is staring at us; we recognize the deficiencies in our models; we believe in the need for change, and to our ignorance we don’t have the slightest clue of where and how to start working on the areas of improvement!!

This conference had the objective to provide a broad direction for school improvement; to enable the schools to embark upon a journey of excellence in education delivery. 

Evolving Responsibility of the Principal

The responsibility of improvement initiatives reside on the able shoulders of the principal.  Facilitating and accepting the changing role of the headmistress is a prerequisite for excellence.  The headmistress till yesterday was involved in overall administrative functioning of the school.  Today the principal is required to be an effective and influential leader.  She is responsible for maintaining the motivation and performance of the teaching staff.  She is looked upon as the torchbearer for bringing about positive change.  She is also accountable for the education quality coupled with administrative functioning.  Equally important is to realize that the principal today is accountable to school management for financial performance as well as expansion initiatives. 

Administrative efficiency and financial performance take precedence on the principal’s to-do list of activities.  Amidst these and other operational functions and activities, how much time can she truly set aside for inculcating new ideas into the school functioning?  The result is that we see no rewarding improvements in school performance or school functioning, because school is lacking effective and definitive leadership.  But who is developing the competence and capabilities of our principals, on whose shoulders we are placing the burden of evolving and improving the school education system? 

Effectiveness of the School Systems & Processes

The schools of today are not much different to the schools of the previous generation.  My daughter is not undergoing anything drastically different to what I had experienced 20 years ago.  Similar set of subjects, similar timetable, similar teaching styles / methodologies, similar administrative challenges, same parent-teacher confrontation.  Some things have changed though – for example more focus on creative arts and sports, technology adoption, better infrastructure, to name a few.  But the quality of education, which is the education imperative, has not improved!  We have stuck to the obsolete processes and systems, which may have been applicable in the yesteryears, but are definitely not value-creating today. 

Our school processes – administrative and educational processes – require a complete review and overhaul to better align with the objective of the education system today.  How often do we think about efficiency or effectiveness of our systems?  When did we last review our learning interventions or the pedagogy adopted?  What measurements and metrics do we have to determine the quality of our teaching?  We are attuned to measuring the student on the basis of tests given, but how often do we ask ourselves the reasons for mediocre performance?  The few instances when we do some soul searching, do we delve and develop improvement initiatives?  Schools do not have the benefit of evolved management competency, due to which business processes and systems are alien terminology, of little interest to the current school management.   Corporate world has clearly defined the process of change management, which can be adopted by academe, as noted by Prof. Harish Choudhary of IIT Delhi Department of Management Studies.  Frameworks like the Balance Scorecard, McKinsey’s 7S Model or Kotter’s 8 Step Model are effective paradigms that can facilitate the journey of change management within schools.  .

The Assessment Paradigm

The schooling system is undergoing a change nevertheless.  Take the CCE as a case in point.  There are other initiatives and experiments being conducted in the education system.  With the pretext of development and change, school authorities have become overwhelmed with activities.  Does academe take a step back to review if the ongoing change is creating real value?  Is there a process of assessment embedded in the school education system?  If not, how do we know if we are going in the desired direction?  Unfortunately, most of the focused involvement is not related to improving the quality of the student-teacher interaction! 

We do have an appreciation for the need of assessment and involved models of assessment.  Students are assessed.  The CCE requires continuous student assessment through class tests, formative assessment and summative assessment.  But is there an inculcated framework for assessing the ongoing improvement initiatives, which take up valuable school resources?  We do assess teachers on a fix set of parameters – attendance, number of classes taught, timely grading, course coverage, administrative task completion etc.  Is this sufficient?  Is the teachers performance linked to the student/class performance?  Is the student’s failure seen as the teacher’s failure?  Is there a process of reviewing the education delivery performance of the teacher, and opportunity for suggesting corrective action for the teachers?  How do we assess the headmistress or principal?  Today, she is assessed primarily on administrative performance.  Do we think of assessing education-oriented processes, teaching methodologies, leadership qualities, effective teamwork, attitude and passion for teaching?

Frequent assessments are an imperative to bringing about positive change.  It is the compass that validates the direction that the school system is headed towards, with corrective measures integrated to realign the efforts towards the end-objective.  The current practices do not integrate process and system assessment as part of the school functioning.  Without an assessment process there is no visibility of ‘where I am today’ nor of ‘where will I be tomorrow’. 

School Improvement Strategy

Yes, it is true that a large proportion of our school education system is plagued with mediocrity and ineffectiveness.  The education system is functioning with an outdated system, without a clear comprehension of its objectives or of its expectations from the society-at-large.  But the practitioners are not ignorant.  They realize and appreciate the challenges of the system, and also recognize that the current system is failing the next generation.  So, why is there no adoption of better practices and pedagogies?  Because majority of the existing set of academic practitioners and teaching staff know no better!  The present cult of educationists has not experienced any better system. 

That change is required is indisputable.  A set of case studies and papers were presented in the conference that should invigorate thought.  Similarly, there is aplenty research conducted and experiments documented to benefit from. But the gravity of change required cannot be initiated from within the system.  External intervention has become a prerequisite to get the ball rolling. A specialist with the dedicated responsibility and prerogative of leading the change is required; a part-time administrator and part-time change agent would not suffice.  

The four point improvement strategy proposed in the conference that school leadership can reflect upon.  First, start with the end in mind.  Review your education objectives and what you desire to achieve.  Second, align your school systems and processes, with greater focus on education and delivery.  Introduce an ongoing process assessment framework to establish performance of the educationists – for teachers focusing on delivery, teaching quality, teamwork, competence and passion.  The assessment should cover the responsibilities of the principal as the change agent.  Third point is to research pedagogies for integrating multiple teaching methodologies in the classroom.  This includes reviewing the curricula and enabling a more active orientation to learning.  Children learn differently, and it is the responsibility of the school to teach the children in the best way they can learn.    Fourth, develop the competencies of the education practitioners – teachers!  The teacher is the education delivery agent.  They have to be capable and competent to deliver upon the objectives promoted by the system.

Yes, the task is daunting, but not impossible.  Mediocre companies have become great with a structured change management paradigm.  Few schools have elevated to become systems of excellence and case studies for others to learn from.  All school systems can rise above the mediocrity to become great education sanctuaries.  There are enough examples around us to take confidence from and believe that yes, we can do it!  It is awaiting the desire and initiative of the leadership. So, are you ready?

Harish Chawla

Harish Chawla, a management consultant is passionate about the education system.  Peculiar ideas of bringing excellence in our system, and possibly reinventing the foundation of education, is common subject of brainstorming.