“Management of school” is crucial in the provision of services leading to quality education be it in the primary or the secondary school sector. This paper will be based on the experience I have gathered over the years at the MIE and especially at the PSSA where I was Officer in Charge for more than a year when I came face to face with certain conditions prevailing in most of the secondary schools and which I call “dissatisfiers”. Dissatisfiers because they lower the performance of both teachers and students and are the root cause of a lot of stress among the teaching profession.

My first serious concern is the first few years which teachers, who have just completed their professional qualification at the MIE, spend in the school where they are employed. During their stay at the MIE, they are closely monitored in their teaching methodology and in their overall attitude towards teaching. Once they have successfully acquired their professional qualification and are enriched with a wide range of teaching techniques, the influence of the MIE lecturers over the teachers stops.

Unfortunately, in many cases, Rectors, Managers and Principals do not ensure and sustain the required follow up, the proper “encadrement” and slowly, the teachers tend to revert to the traditional methods of teaching… the easy way. In certain cases, this happens because of the lack of resources and also because all activities in schools tend to focus towards examinations… Mauritius is considered to be one of the most examination conscious nations of the world and the backlash effect of examinations is classroom practice is very strong indeed. The reputation of a secondary or primary institution tends to be based uniquely on past exam results.

The heart of leadership is the willingness to assume responsibility and to assume a positive role in the supervision and improvement of instruction. There is also a need to set up an internal school peer review system.

Good school management, involves the provision, maintenance and improvement of proper physical conditions i.e infrastructure both inside the classroom and outside. If both teachers and students have to perform well, then the physical and infrastructural deficiencies have to be urgently looked into. This is school management…

But there is also school leadership. Unfortunately, I have come across many unscrupulous managers who never place education at the centre of their agendas. At the ministry of Education, we have witnessed critical shortcomings as far as repairs and maintenance of State Secondary Schools are concerned. Most of the time, those responsible for such schools i.e Rectors are blamed for mismanagement of their resources and of their environment. I was really shocked last November with the state of the environment in a new State Secondary school…inaugurated in 2004. Here I am referring only to infrastructural management and not to the environment of the school premises beyond the classroom.

The quality of education provided by a school and the success of any new curriculum reform rest on the type of leadership at regional (Zones) and at school level. Good leadership is crucial towards improving student achievement.

There are four elements in the overall school environment. These are time, space, people and resources. The good management of all lead to better school achievement.

It is high time that the role of Inspectors and supervisors in our primary and secondary schools be revisited.

● <B>The role of the PSSA</B>

For me inspectors and supervisors should be pedagogical advisers, facilitators and above all trainers from whom teachers expect regular formative feedback. This should be given urgent attention especially in the context of the implementation of any educational reform:

The PSSA has a critical role to play in the private secondary education sector especially on quality of the teaching – learning process and there has never been a Private Secondary School Quality Assurance Mechanism set up.

What we need is a redesign of the assessment model and process for a better alignment between funding objectives of the new Comprehensive Grant Formula and assessment criteria leading towards an improvement in the provision of services.

The PSSA should provide the necessary logistic and other support to schools so as to allow the private secondary school sector to become more effective and dynamic. The PSSA should therefore organize regular tailor-made training programmes and refresher courses, targeting more especially school managers thereby facilitating capacity building. The PSSA should be called upon to shift its focus from inspection to more pro-active support to assist institutions in school development and resource management.

● <B> Violence in schools</B>

Apart from benefiting from external auditors, there is a need for each school to set up a Management Information System to guide decisions.

Violence in schools is also becoming a common collective problem. The school is a place where friendships are forged, respect shown and earned and lessons of life learnt. The schoolyard may change, teachers may come and leave and customs and hairstyles evolve, but memories of school life linger forever.

In Mauritius, violence and indiscipline in secondary schools is becoming a real cause for concern. There is enough anecdotal evidence that we have serious problems of indiscipline and violence in our schools. As a former Officer in Charge of the Private Secondary Schools Authority, I have come across many reported cases of violence in our secondary schools and believe me this is growing at an alarming rate.

In our days, indiscipline in schools encompassed unruly behaviour in class, truancy, theft, damaging school property, bullying, use of foul language, writing foul language on desks and in the toilets, not wearing a school badge and so on.

Now, our youngsters have graduated to smoking, assaulting teachers, consuming alcohol and drugs, gang fights and so on.

● <B>Code of Ethics</B>

In order to monitor closely any form of violence, indiscipline or any deviant behaviour, it is essential for schools to have a code of ethics drafted after reaching consensus and accepted by all stakeholders.

In France, each secondary school (College & Lycée) has a Code de Moralité or Charte de bonne conduite posted in the school notice board and all parents and students are invited to read. The document is usually signed by all parents and hence, they are all aware of the sanctions attached to any breach of rule and discipline.

It has also been observed that there are two peaks of violence common to an Institution: December and February. The reasons are attributed to pre - exam stress and the long duration of a school term. This is why it is highly recommended to have a short break when the term is too long – second term for that matter in Mauritius. It is also observed that in 9 out of 10 cases, violence tends to be directed against a male teacher between the ages of 40 and 50.

It is also envisaged that Heads of Institutions, Inspectors and high officers of the Ministry of Education and representatives of parents and the Unions meet once a term or twice a year to share information related to misbehaviour, indiscipline and violence in schools with a view to redefining objectives and modalities of cooperation.

In Mauritius, I can bear witness to very little response from parents when they are requested to collaborate with teachers. On the contrary, parents are quick to accuse teachers of incompetence and indolence and in most cases students also sing the same tune.

Parents tend to side with their children who breach a rule or a regulation at school and this alienates teachers and parents and the result is that the much needed partnership for the overall educational development of the child is weakened. In many instances, something which is considered wrong at school is allowed at home. This is perhaps the cause for students to rebel at school P.T.As have an important role to play. Yet nothing much is being done through this organization. Unfortunately, in certain schools the P.T.A exists only in name and I know of some unscrupulous school Managers who divert P.T.A funds for their own private use.

It is also well known that sports and games keep children together. Sadly, playing fields have disappeared in many schools and there is no more that glorious inter college athletic competition as before. This is perhaps one of the reasons why our youth tend to hang around in shopping centers as they do not know where to go.

At school level, there is a need to set up a partnership and a distributed accountability in order to develop a high performance learning culture and in the process make schools become a learner friendly environment

Prem SADDUL</B>