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| School-Based Management: does it add up? Source: ecenglish.com |
School-Based Management is one of the hot issues in NSW public schools at the moment. Generally speaking, school-based management is defined as the transfer of authority for many matters (e.g. managing school budgets, hiring staff) from the central government authority to the school level. Since first promised as part of their 2011 NSW state election platform, Barry O'Farrell and Coalition government have been moving to make such an initiative a reality for NSW government schools.
To date, the NSW government schools system has operated in a relatively centralised fashion. The NSW Department of Education has largely retained centralised responsibility for school recruitment, staffing and finances. many arguments are put forward to decentralise these responsibilities, and allow schools to make decisions for themselves. Advocated reasons for such moves correlate strongly with conventional arguments for decentralised decision-making authority in large organisational settings. Can you recall what these conventional arguments are and how they may relate to improving the quality of schools and education? You can read an evaluation of school-based management here and an assessment of pilot testing of school-based management in the NSW here.
However, not everybody is happy about this development, and there is strong criticism about the possibility of decentralised schools. What do you think the bases for their criticisms might be?
What's your view? Do you think school-based management is a good thing? Or do you think maintaining centralised control of government schools is in the best interests of public eduction? Let me know your thoughts.
Update: The Coalition Federal government announced in February 2014 a $70 million proposal to train school principals and leadership boards as part of a plan to help 25% of government schools across Australia become 'independent' by 2017. Read more here.
However, not everybody is happy about this development, and there is strong criticism about the possibility of decentralised schools. What do you think the bases for their criticisms might be?
What's your view? Do you think school-based management is a good thing? Or do you think maintaining centralised control of government schools is in the best interests of public eduction? Let me know your thoughts.
Update: The Coalition Federal government announced in February 2014 a $70 million proposal to train school principals and leadership boards as part of a plan to help 25% of government schools across Australia become 'independent' by 2017. Read more here.
