A total of 49 middle managers graduated from the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance (MGSLG) last month after completing its middle management for quality learning programme.
“[Heads of departments] and members of school management teams require managerial development through a recognised professional qualification,” says Anusha Naidu, director of leadership development at the school.
“We developed the middle management programme to specifically address these needs. Middle managers or heads of subjects/learning areas or phases are crucial to the delivery of quality teaching and learning in schools. Middle managers are those who implement the vision of a school. Yet many of them have only a vague understanding of their role,” she added.
According to Naidu, the programme empowers candidates to lead and manage the planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation, of teaching and learning to ensure continuous improvement and quality learning.
“The primary benefit of the programme is that it exposes school leaders to new ways of learning and managing.”
A central principle of the MGSLG is that all developmental programmes for management and governance must have a positive impact on practice. Practice-based development implies that:
- Professional development is about improving performance in the job.
- There is access to new ideas, theoretical insights and innovative approaches to practice.
- Learning should be practical and realistic, fostering a culture of professional learning as a core activity among all staff.
- Personal professional development must be linked to school development.
- To focus on improving practice, candidates need to learn in real contexts where leading and managing initiatives must matter to the school and its pupils.
- Assessment must be based on performance.
The programme was developed in response to the National Business Initiative’s (NBI) concern that heads of departments in schools were not fulfilling the critical role of leaders in teaching and learning.
The introduction of performance management in schools, as manifested in the Department of Education’s Integrated Quality Management System and the concerns from NBI, prompted MGSLG to develop a programme that would specifically target middle managers.
The programme, accredited by the education, training and development Sector Education Training Authority at level 6 of the National Qualification Framework, was launched in 2004.