If the school manager does not believe in improvement or cannot see the need for it, there is very little likelihood that he or she will be able to persuade others to accept it. The following are duties of a school manager:
A School Manager in the Core Values of an Effective School
Contents
The core values that an effective school manager should observe are as follows:
- Commitment – school managers have to set aside time to be involved in and be well acquainted with the school
- Selflessness School managers should avoid using their position for personal gain. Their role is to give professional advice to improve students’ learning
- Integrity above private interest: The interests of the school as a whole, rather than the private interest of an individual school manager, should always take top priority
- Impartiality: The choices and decision of school managers should always be based on merit and fairness. School managers should be impartial in carrying out their duties under no circumstances should preferential treatment be given to any party.
- Collective responsibility: Each school manager has a right to participate and to state his/her own views, while respecting the views of other.
- Accountability and openness: School managers are the accounting officers of their schools and they should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions they take.
- Confidentiality: When a matter is under discussion, it must not be disclosed before a decision is taken. Each school manager must respect the confidentiality of items that have been designated as confidential
Record Keeping in School Management and Administration
Keeping school records properly is an important aspect of managing the school.
A record is a written account of something that is kept so that it can be looked at and used in the future.
Records kept by the school manager are known as administrative Records, which help to run the day-to-day activities of the school while those kept by the class teachers are known as teaching records.
Administrative Records are kept in schools to maintain the history and the activities of pupils and staff of the school over the years
Classification of records kept in the school
Record kept in the school either by the School Managers or the Teachers can be categorized into two:
Statutory Records
Non-Statutory Records
Statutory Records are the school records kept in accordance with the Education law of the state and must be produced on request by the agents of education on official inspection. E.g. Admission register, Log book, Attendance Register.
Non-Statutory Records are those records that are created and kept for administrative conveniences e.g. Lesson notes, Marks Book, Continuous assessment, question bank, the absentees register, etc.
The uses of some Records kept in school
The functions of the following records are briefly discussed.
Log Book – This is a school document mainly kept by the school manager in which important events are recorded.
Admission Register: This is the register in which the names of past and present students of the school are recorded. The register shows the age, class, sex, names, address of each pupil as well a their parents or guardians.
Attendance Register: It is used for keeping the daily attendance of pupils in the school by every class teacher.
Visitors’ Book: This is the book in which the names of all visitors with special and important assignment in the school are recorded. It usually contains the names, ranks, place of work, purpose of visit, date, remarks and signature of the visitors.
Importance of keeping records
1. It enhances efficient administrative control of the school
2. Records properly kept help the teacher to prepare himself/herself ahead of the task e.g. the Lesson Notes.
3 Records and record keeping are vital tools for planning
4. It enhances accountability both on the part of the teacher and the school manager.
5 Records show information on the achievement and Progress of the students during their school Career.
6 It provides relevant data that may be needed by stakeholders for the development of the school.
7 It shows historical development of the school
8 Good records kept in a school help the incumbent school manager in the performance of his/her duties
A School in the Health Promotion of the Schools
Experience has revealed that there is a direct relationship between the health of students and their ability to learn.
Health promotion among learners in schools is critical to achieving quality education.
A health promoting school is a school in which activities are designed to promote the health of staff and pupils
A health promoting school can characterized as a school constantly strengthening its capacity as a healthy setting for living, learning and working
Health promoting schools are schools that:
- Enforce a school policy that promotes positive health behaviour such as feeding, proper disposal of waste, use and maintenance of school toilets, inspection of students on personal hygiene etc
- Provide access to health services such as First Aid, primary Health centers,
- Record the health status of students
- Establish Health promoting clubs and a school health committee to co-ordinate all health and nutrition related issues affecting the school g Red cross etc
- Provide safe water.
Heath promoting schools can provide simple, safe and effective health services, which can lead to:
- Increase in enrollment and improvement in attendance
- Retention in school and completion of basic education
- Reduction in grade repetition
- Improvement in educational attainment
Poor health decreases attendance and retention rates and impairs children’s ability to learn.
Possible steps schools should take when learners get sick
- Apply relevant first aid treatment
- Refer pupils to nearby primary health care centre
- Contact parents
Promoting the nutrition status of students
Nutrition plays an important role in the physical and mental development of the child. It is necessary for enhanced learning capacity and ability to concentrate.
Therefore, in order to promote the nutrition status of School Children, the schools should carry out the following activities
- Regular weighing and height measurement for all school children at least once in a term
- Any cases of serious growth faltering (retardation) should be referred to health centers
- Ensure that persons preparing and selling food are medically fit
- Ensure all foods sold in school are properly packaged and stored
- Educating school children on good feeding practices
A School Manager in the Parent-School Partnership
Parental involvement is an important aspect of education and that does not happen by itself. School managers and teachers are responsible for bringing it about. Without cooperation between the parents and the school manager, the child cannot be sufficiently educated.
Benefits of Parent–School Manager Partnership
- Improvement in pupils’ learning and attendance
- Reduction in drop- out rates
- Knowledge of pupils’ situation at home
- A more positive attitude towards the school
- Decrease in delinquency
- Support from the community
Partnership between parent and school manager calls for the following attitudes
- Mutual respect for one another
- An openness towards one another in the interest of the child
- A relationship in which the parents and the school manager support one another
- Effective two-way communication
- Encouragement and assistance to ensure that each partner performs his or her role
- Loyalty towards one another and sincere cooperation
- Understanding of one another’s potential
- Acceptance of one another’s limitation
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Editors
