Professional Development for Leaders and Managers of Self-Governing Schools

Current Context Currently, self-governing schools (SGS) or school-based/site-based management (SBM) or local management of schools (LMS) identifies the individual school as the primary unit of improvement. It relies on the redistribution of decision-making authority to stimulate and sustain impro- ments in a school. For this purpose, varying degrees of formal authority to make decisions in the domains of schools mission, goals, priorities, and school policies relating to financial, material and human resources are not simply delegated but transferred by legislation to a representative governing body called the school council or board. Accordingly, it is the position of the principal or the head-teacher, previously at the apex of the hierarchical str- ture of the school which undergoes the most radical reform. Under the new concept, authority is shifted to the corporate body that is to the council or board while the principal becomes an ex-officio member of that body and the chief executive officer (CEO) of the school. Traditionally and legally, the principal or the head-teacher was vested with the full authority for the total management of the school. But, in terms of SGS or SBM, the principal becomes a partner with the representatives of other relevant stakeholders in a democratic structure. When the bureaucratic model of a school gets modified with the school governing body occupying the apex of the school hierarchy, it becomes the key power centre with legal authority.