MPF 1303 POLITICS AND EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

Topic : School Based Management : Contemporary Trend in Education System

Prepared by; Samuel Anak Harus MP121190

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INTRODUCTION

The process of decentralization in education through devolution ended with the school empowerment and high participation of local community in education. This common characteristic of school based management also shared by many countries in OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) in their educational reform. It is believed that in order to progress, the management of education should place at the actual venue of action it takes place which is the school (Caldwell, 2005). It concurred with the research outcomes from World Bank Report (2007), which implied to us that students who perform well in the international performance test are those from countries that allow their local authorities participation and their highly autonomous school to decide on the content of their own curriculum and allocation as well as management of the resources.

There are varying reasons why many countries shifted to decentralization as it gains its popularity in developed countries and gradually adopted in developing countries. Nevertheless, the choice still remained at the hand of respective government, thus contentious issues between decentralization and centralized system must be thoroughly considered as claimed by Caldwell, 2005: 4, centralization and decentralization are in tension, with centralization indicated when control, uniformity, and efficiency are preferred, and decentralisation indicated when freedom, differentiation, and responsiveness are preferred.

In other words, the choice whether to adopt or not inevitably and largely depend on the local needs such cultural, social and political condition of the people in that country so as not to create chaotic situation locally. Thus, by far it may be suitable for certain country, but not compatible with other country. Many local factors must be thoroughly considered as well.

Some advocates believe that we must abandon the centralized education which seemed inappropriate and fail to address many issues in education. It is seen incompatible with the current progress of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) age and the advancing fear of the effects of globalization on education development. This fast growing may bring huge implication in
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education locally. Therefore, in order to succeed, education must be able to adapt to current development and changes, none other than through new paradigm shift in school based management (Cheng, 2001).

Fundamentally, this paper intends to highlight the general concept of School Based Management (SBM) as a new trend and alternative to latest educational reform. By implying several advantages related to this new reform, the writer also tries to explicitly expose the attempt by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia to practice School Based Management (SBT) through the embarkation of Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi (SBT) in 2010 and other independent schools.

Nevertheless, it is too early to claim that it will bring about success in Malaysia context since many affecting factors such as national unity and racial sensitivity in this multiethnic society must not be abandoned while conforming to goals and objectives of National Education Policy (Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia, 2012).

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GENERAL CONCEPT OF SCHOOL BASED MANAGEMEMT

Nevertheless, to clearly define the degree of devolution of decision making to the local level may varied from one country to another. It could range from single devolution of particular area to the extent that the community involvement has the power to create school, including hiring and firing teachers. Undeniably, throughout this institutional reform, the power of principals and teachers had been strengthened, coupled with motivation and sense of ownership among them.

In general, school based management can be defined conceptually as a situation where the decentralization took place in the central government that includes retribution of decision making authority as a primary means towards the improvement within the school level (Malen et al.,1990). As defined by Murphy, 1997, SBM is a strategy to decentralize decision-making process to the individuals holding responsibility in schools, which facilitates the empowerment of parents and the professionalism of teacher, shared decision-making among key stakeholders at the local level.

In short, the decision making authority will be transferred to principals, teachers, students as well as parents, the local community through school council. These areas to be devolved including budget allocation, selection of teachers and schools staff, curriculum development, school infrastructures, teaching and learning materials as well as evaluation of teachers performance and students learning outcomes. Nevertheless, there are set of policies imposed by the central government that need to be adhered by these schools.

According to World Bank (2007), the degree of school based management can be categorized from weak and strong term of areas devolved and authority of decision making granted by the central office (refer to appendix I).

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RATIONALE FOR SCHOOL BASED MANAGEMENT

According to Hanushek and Woessmann (2007) the rationales behind these school based management can be categorized as followings : i) choice and competition, ii) school autonomy; and iii) school accountability. It is through school performance in term of academic achievement that parents started to look for better schools for the children. Therefore, these competing schools will utilize their best effort to produce excellent result among their student. Thus, the quality of their prestigious education characterized their main ingredient to compete locally and internationally. As a result, this will allow the number of students enrol to increase (quantity) as well.

School based management allows teacher and principals as well as administrators and local community to have greater authority over what they want and need. School autonomy is another characteristic that need to be considered since teachers are the person who really run the school. They are the one who know all the processes and operations that related to academic and non academic issues in their respective school. Therefore, they should have full autonomy over these issues. For example, when it comes to budgetary, the teachers and school administrator should know where to spend, when and how to spend with the limited resources. Within this context, the school know almost everything related to their issues and problems and way to address them. Therefore, the devolution that allows the school autonomy is necessary and brings positive outcomes.
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The close cooperation between parents and teachers as well as school administrator will uphold the school accountability. The close rapports among them have positive impact on school. The problem related to school can be dealt amicably among them. In such cases, where parents prioritize the quality of their education, only the best teachers will be selected and hired. In other area, parents are really supportive when they raise fund for school through their involvement in school council and it is their anticipation that school will help their children to excel academically.

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GENERAL MODELS OF SCHOOL BASED MANAGEMENT

However, the question who to devolve the power of decision making authority and what to devolve remain in unsolved. Indisputably, it may vary in different countries that practice school based management. According to Leithwood and Menzies (1998), this decision making power in school based management can be modelled as the followings; i) administrative control, ii) professional control, iii) community control and; iv) balanced control.

When the power of decision making in the hand of the principal, he or she is held accountable to the central authority, in such a way that it assumes that only one person is responsible for the efficiency of expenditures including curriculum in particular school. This administrative control model had raised many debates among scholars and academician around the world and education planners in which to justify the important of principal to determine the success and downfall of school within his/her control.

In the situation, whenever parents are in power, the school reflect the needs and demands from the local communities. In this sense, school are more responsive to the public or parents especially in its curriculum and others local preferences. This community control has the likelihood to encourage school for stiffer competition to entice more students enrolment and their quest for better quality education.

Whereas, when teachers have greater influence on decision making of the school process and progress, this model falls under professional control. Teachers as a primary source of power stemmed from classroom level can be utilized through their knowledge based. Subsequently, greater involvement among the teachers in decision making will be able to motivate them as they perform better in school and highly contributed to school success academically.

The balanced power control means the sharing of mutual decision making between the parents and teachers in school. This would only happen with the assumption that teachers detailed knowledge about school can be utilized for the betterment of school management and make them accountable to parents.

Ironically, most commonly the school based management practice comprised all mixture of the models aforementioned. Examples for such cases can be drawn from many countries that practising this school based management; unlike New Zealand bestowed full autonomy to parents to be involved in school affairs as well as Netherlands that devolved full authority to principal that most of the time adhered to the needs of the specific cultural and religious need of its local community (World Bank, 2007).

For this instance, the best example can be seen in New Zealand which had initiated the idea of decentralization since 1989, they learned from Canada, specifically model from Edmonton Public Schools to follow (Wylie, 2007). Thus, there a lot to offer to the local Maori education as schools are able to cater the best to them as how responsive the schools to the need and demand of the aborigines there. Similarly, in Canada, how the central government has devolved its education responsibilities and authority to adhere to need rights of the immigrant students and request for its denominational education (Zinga, 2008). All these made possible through empowerment of school and its management at the school level.

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BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS FROM SCHOOL BASED MANAGEMENT

The underlying issues that prompted many countries to redistribute the management of education to school level may ranged from economics to political forces other than education itself in a way to accommodate the current demand to change globally. The academic achievement as pivotal indicator human success has huge impact for this change. Many countries believe that through decentralization, thus school empowerment through teachers will bring about academic excellence. Those claims evidently true when countries such as Finland, New Zealand and Canada that practice strong school based management ranked high in international recognised education assessment such as Programme for International Assessment (PISA) and Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS).

Apart from excellence academic achievement, school based management thought to have fostered the school management transparency and competent management, thus reduce corruptions and malpractices. The counter check and balance through parents and teachers discussions and concession managed to create a healthy environment for school to progress. This encouraging environment once again promotes school accountability and transparency. It concurred with the research conducted on site council, school committee or komite sekolah as devolution process took place in school which had implied the success of initial educational reform in Indonesia. Thus, the contribution of school council/committee towards educational change in Indonesia is very much emphasized (Sumintono, Mislan and Said, 2012). Herein, the participation of community through school council played pivotal role to the support schools, at times related to fund raising for schools, besides mutual understanding among the stake holders to improve the school condition and students.

School based management gives a lot of benefits in term of monetary and budget. The actual amount of money allotted to the school will certainly reach the target groups, the students without unnecessary waste through much bureaucracy involved. Therefore, the amount of allocation granted by the central authority can be fully utilized and used for the improvements of school infrastructures, teaching and learning materials to enhance students academic performance.

However, constant monitoring from school administrator and local direct involvement has adversely affects the teachers performance. This will certainly contribute to the lack of competencies among the teacher as those teachers feel resent and eventually create a deteriorating
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relationship with the local. There are possibilities of principal abuse of power when full authority is given to them. Those are implicated could have been related to financial embezzlement and managerial malpractices that lead to corruption and abuse of power.

Central office concerned over community participation in the school management and administration should not ignore the council members effort and voice with political and other hidden agendas. As frequently, the unhealthy involvement ought to be monitored and scrutinized by the school management and central authority as well. It is essential for parents, and local community to work collegially for the benefits of the school. Even though, in reality this could have rarely happen (World Bank, 2007).

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ATTEMPT

TO

ADOPT

SCHOOL

BASED

MANAGEMENT

THROUGH

EMPOWERMENT OF PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP IN MALAYSIA

As discussed earlier, one of the characteristic for school based management to succeed is through competent principal with strong leadership skills. Therefore, in order to attain the desirable outcomes from school, the power to make decision within the school level should be bestowed to the principal as a centre of authority.

Malaysia practices the centralized education system with almost all matters pertaining to education development is under the purview of the Ministry of Education including final decision making. Nevertheless, there are several attempts to empower the school by the central government through principal leadership. Apparently, school management and principal leadership has become centre of focus for this gradual attempted redistribution (only confined and limited to area related to power for principal only in selected school such as Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi; SBP). Herein, the principal has the greater autonomy over the school administration including teaching and learning as well as financial management and selection of students (Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia, 2010), though had initially opposed by certain quarters.

The relationship between school management and principal leadership thought to have positive correlation based on research conducted by Abdullah, Ismail and Abdullah (n.d). Strong principal leadership contribute to higher to school improvement eventually improve the student academic excellence within the school based management in Malaysia. Another research conducted by Botha (2006) in South African school also concurred with the outcome that leadership of school principal played pivotal role in school improvement within the school based management. Therefore, it is proven apart from many other contributing factors that, the leadership of principal has broadly accepted as the primary factor contributing to the success of school based management and school improvement.

Principal leadership could have substantially contributed to the school improvement, and not to be mistaken other affecting factor such as community and parents participation should also taken into account.

Meanwhile, to further discuss the school based management that characterised by community involvement, the parent-teachers associations (PTAs) only predominantly seen in some Chinese schools, Chinese Independence and other private schools which are out of the government control. In general, the community support is greater and apparently seen in the form of financial aids and contribution coupled with administrative and management control from Chinese school board of committee. Therefore, to certainly advocates that it this has bring about the school to improve is hardly be approved since the government only recently recognized their education in national system. As a matter of fact, these schools survival are always at the hands of its own community through financial and other persistent materials support.

Relatively, it rarely occurred in government schools since the administration and management of these are fully under the control of respective District Education Office and directly reported to State Education Department. As a result, the testimonial to SBM success has very little to expose.

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CONCLUSION

Much can be discussed related to the issues of school based management whether to its testimonial to education success and latest adaptation to current globally change. How resilience is
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the school to the impact of globalization also need to be discussed at length. Certainly, we cannot avoid to reform in order to compete globally with other country as we produce our human capital to gain competitive value internationally. Therefore education must be able to prepare nation with knowledge so that we can keep abreast with the latest change and protect our nation from any possible adverse effect of globalization.

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REFERENCES

Abdullah, A. G., Ismail, A., & Abdullah, M. H., (n.d). The Relationship between School Based Management and Principals Effective Roles towards School improvement. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang. Retrieved from : http://ikp.um.edu.my/images/ipk/doc/Dr%20Ghani%20Abdulah.pdf

Botha, N., (2006). Leadership in School Management : A Case Study in Selected Schools, South African Journal of Education, Vol 26(3), pp. 341353

Caldwell, B.J., (2005). School-based Management. Education Policy Series. The International Institute for Educational Planning and The International Academy of Education, Paris and Brussels.

Cheng, Y. C. (2001). New Vision of School-based Management: Globalization, Localization, and Individualization, Asia-Pacific Centre for Education Leadership and School Quality Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia, (2010). Surat Pekeliling Ikhtisas Bilangan 13 Tahun 2010 Pelaksanaan Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi (SBT). Garis Panduan Pelaksanaan Autonomi Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi.Putrajaya.

Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia, (2012). Dasar Pendidikan Kebangsaan (Edisi Ketiga), Putrajaya. Retrieved from : http://www.moe.gov.my/userfiles/file/BUKU%20DASAR.pdf

Leithwood, K., and Menzies, T. (1998).Forms and Effects of School-Based Management: A Review. Educational Policy 12(3), pp. 325-346.

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Malen, B., Ogawa,R.T., and

Kranz, J. (1990) What Do We Know about School -Based

Management: A Case Study of the Literature- A call for Research. Chapter-8- In choice and control in American Education. Volume 2 : The Practice Of choice. Decentralization and School Restructuring edited by W.H Clune and J.F Witte. New york: The Falmer Press.

Sumintono, B., Mislan, N., and Said, H. (2012). School Committee: An Implementation of School Based Management Policy at School Level in Indonesia, Cendekia Media Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan IKIP PGRI Kalimantan Timur, Volume IV, Nomor 1, pp. 1-23.

The World Bank. (2007, November). What is School Based Management? Retrieved from : http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/2782001099079877269/547664-1099079934475/547667-1145313948551/what_is_SBM.pdf

Wylie, C. (2007). What Can New Zealand Learn From Edmonton? New Zealand Council for Education Research.

Zinga, D. (2008). Ontarios Challenge : Denominational Rights in Public Education, Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, Issues #80, pp.1-44.

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Appendix I

Source: World Bank, November 2007.

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