Leadership training for school principals invaluable

The article Kenya schools ill equipped in face of disasters in The Standard of November 7, 2010, that stressed the need for school principal training in disaster management puts a focus on all school leaders’ preparedness to meet emerging social challenges posed by the 21st century student.

According to the author, the Ministry of Education will soon require refresher courses for principals on administration and disaster management. The initiative to engage and improve leadership skills is a move in the right direction. However, in addition to the proposed courses, there is need for a comprehensive training programme that includes both formal and informal training of current and prospective principals.

Formal training of prospective principals is non-existent in Kenya, and access to current literature on effective school leadership and research on best practices is limited.

The competitive environment in the school system hinders effective principals from sharing best practices and non-existence of principal leadership information keeps schools from gaining from principals of effective schools. Moreover, principals from "turnaround schools" are reluctant to share their best practices because they fear losing their position as "best performing schools".

This, coupled with the non-existence of formal administrator preparation programmes that prepare teachers for principalship, contributes significantly to the lack of skill development of principals.

Consequently, training to meet the challenge of influx of students due to the Free Primary School (FPE) programme, consistent updating of skills demanded by changing school demographics, society and global competition, and how to support and supervise teachers to improve instruction should all be included in education reform if the learning environment is to improve.

Converging research on the needs of beginning principals highlights the need for continuous skills training of principals and calls for strengthening of existing skills training programmes including in-service training and seminars, but cautions that often these "cost-effective" programmes often result in a "one-size-fits all" and do not provide adequate basic knowledge required to be effective school leaders. The research recommends "training that is contextualised and targeted".

Kenyan society is in transition and this affects the student-learning environment. For the last few years, there has been evidence of volatility, student unrest, and loss of life due to arson in schools. In most cases, the responses have been reactive, almost always after tragedy occurs.

Articulate vision

The recent tragic deaths of students in Endarasha Boys Secondary School, due to arson should be a wake up call to establish early warning systems thresholds which trigger precautionary steps before tense situations escalate to violence.

Leaders should thus be able to anticipate change and gauge its impact on school environment and learning, through use of data and student environment indices to respond appropriately. Increased insecurity, social and administrative issues will increasingly become more challenging and this will require long-term solutions.

To maximise the school processes, principals must be able to articulate the vision and mission of the school, break down the school mission into clear measurable goals, outline expected standards of performance, structure school learning activities and effective strategies that all school stakeholders must use to achieve these goals.

An effective principal is both a manager and an instructional leader. As an effective manager, the principal must co-ordinate all the school resources and processes to promote student learning; manage school resources to support and improve teaching; provide supervisory leadership; be able to link evaluations and supervision to teacher professional development; and empower teachers by including them in decision making.

As an instructional leader, principals must set direction by articulating a clear vision that the school should take, and clearly communicate with all stakeholders.

Irene Kimenyi is a Research Associate with K&K Research Associates, and Mary Thuo is at University of Connecticut. The opinions herein are not necessarily those of The Standard.

kimenyi@aol.com