Poor governance hurting education -Wynter
Published:Thursday | December 16, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Nadisha Hunter, Gleaner Writer
Management expert Robert Wynter has bashed the Government's failure to address systemic problems in the education sector which has churned out substandard academic performances.
His response follows damning results showing poor governance in some schools, outlined in the chief inspector's report on the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) programme, tabled in Parliament.
Wynter, who is the managing director of Strategic Alignment Limited, said the task force report on education reform, which was tabled in Parliament in 2004, showed poor governance as a major stumbling block. He said that problem has still not been resolved.
"I do not believe that the Ministry of Education has done enough to really address the issue of governance generally in the system, as well as in the schools," he said.
"I see the challenges with the test scores and I see that there is a reaction to blame the teachers, but I think the Ministry of Education needs to take a hell of a lot of blame, because they really have not implemented the main aspects of the task force.
"They need to be held accoun-table for the performance them-selves," Wynter charged.
The NEI report indicated that of the 23 primary schools inspected, the governance standards of 13 were below expectations, while nine were rated satisfactory and only one school got high marks. In all four secondary high schools inspected, governance was deemed to be unsatisfactory.
However, two traditional high schools and a school of excellence all received good ratings.
Thirty primary and secondary schools were inspected from April to June in the pilot assessment programme carried out by the NEI.
The parliamentary report on the standard of the primary level noted: "The issues leading to this judgement were varied, but a consistent theme was the failure of the boards of governors to hold principals accountable, help set clear targets and provide a structure for the overall management of the school.
"In many instances, boards appeared unaware of their role in the school and were either disconnected or in conflict with the school leadership," it continued.
Hands-off management
The report noted that governance standards were considered weakest in schools whose boards had a hands-off approach to management.
Citing the results of one secondary school, the inspectorate team noted: "Shortcomings were identified where the board relied entirely on reports from the principal to make judgements about the school and, therefore, failed to have sufficient objective details about the operations and performance of schools under its purview."
But Audrey Sewell, permanent secretary in the education ministry, told The Gleaner that the National Council on Education is to intensify its training of board members to address the management deficit in some schools.
Sewell said the ministry was looking at revising the procedures to choose more effective persons on the school boards.
"We want to widen the net so that we can get more persons who have specific competencies and who can contribute, not necessarily academics, but competencies in terms of leadership, supervision, management to help, because the board supervises the principal, and so we want to strengthen the competencies at that level," she disclosed.
Sewell added that Cabinet had approved the establishment of a national college on educational leadership, through which the ministry will improve the training of principals.