Inspiring School Growth through Effective Leadership

By

Vincent Onodugo, PhD, FCAI, FIIA, Mnim

Associate Professor, Department of Management, University of Nigeria,  Enugu Campus

Vincent.onodugo@unn.edu.ng 08035487972

Paper presented at

South East Professional Educators Conference held on 23^rd March, 2019 at Sunshine Guest House, Enugu

• Background and context
• Definition of key terminology
• What are the issues with Nigerian Education system
• Essentials of Effective leadership
• Signs of leaderships effectiveness in managing school system
• Areas to target by educators in providing leadership

Building leadership skills among educators

Background/Context

• “Just as a country is as good as its people, so its citizens are only as good as their teachers.”
  • Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Teachers Day Rally, 2006
• “A united and determined group of leaders backed by a practical and hardworking people who trusted them, made it possible…Singaporeans will have to be nimble in adopting and adapting these new discoveries to play a role in disseminating them…The future is full of promise as it is fraught with uncertainty. The industrial society is giving way to the one based on knowledge. The new divide in the world will be between those with knowledge and those without.”
  • Lee Kuan Yew Singapore Prime Minister (1959-1990)
• We have a bizarre situation in Nigeria where the standards of education are falling in a world where the knowledge requirements to succeed is increasing
• We have a situation where the number of schools is increasing at all levels while the quality of outputs is dropping
• The global education community is re-inventing itself to catch up with fast-paced development, while Nigerian educational system is at best crawling and at worst marking time
• The truth is that in the years ahead, the huge private sector investment in education will present a very competitive atmosphere that only  well run schools will survive the high tide of competition
• In all these, the game changing trump card for schools going forward will be the quality of school leadership and management
• It is against this background that this paper finds its relevance and import

DEFINITION OF TERMS

• Inspire means to give somebody the desire, confidence and enthusiasm to do something well
• Growth is the process of increasing in size, number, strength or quality
• Effective : This means ability to achieve goals and realise pre-determined objectives

A Leader  is the person who influences the action of a group of people towards the attainment of pre-determined objectives.

• Effective Leader is the one that mobilises a group of people and the available resources to achieve the goals and objectives of the group.
• The topic is therefore how to create the desire and enthusiasm among the members of the school community to achieve increase in number, size and quality of the school through effective leadership

A school manager will be an effective leader to succeed

What  are the Issues with the Nigerian School System?

• Schools are run strictly to make money not to groom future leaders- most proprietors are entrepreneurs not educationists
• Consequently, schools are not founded on a properly guided philosophy of education ( we adopt teacher centred approach to learning-pedagogy )
• Pupils and students are trained to achieve short-term results in the exams that test only the cognitive domains

Little attention is paid to the affective and psycho-motor domains

• Competition and unemployment has driven schools to hire persons that are not professional teachers with little opportunity for professional growth
• Teachers are poorly remunerated and not proud of their profession ( some of them are temporary while looking for job elsewhere)
• Poor supervision from usually compromised education supervisors

The quest to make quick profit has made it difficult for proprietors to create an enabling environment to properly educate pupils and students holistically- space for sports, good laboratory environment, accident-free environment, etc.

Effective Leadership Components

Personality: relatively stable dispositions to behave in a particular way–four are of particular note:

• Self-confident leaders: more likely to set high goals and persist
• Stress-tolerant leaders: make good decisions, stay calm, provide decisive directions under stress
• Emotionally mature leaders: have accurate awareness of strengths and weaknesses, are oriented toward self-improvement
• Leaders with integrity: behaviors are consistent with stated values—these leaders are seen as honest, ethical, responsible, and trustworthy

Motivation: set of energetic forces from both within and beyond an individual to initiate work-related behavior and determine its form, direction, intensity, and duration

• Four motivational traits are key for effective leaders:
  • Task and interpersonal needs: effective leaders have drive for the task and concern for people
  • Power needs: effective leaders seek positions of authority and are comfortable exercising influence over others
  • Achievement orientation: effective leaders have a desire to excel, a drive to succeed, willingness to assume responsibility
  • High expectations for success: effective leaders believe they can do the job and will receive valued outcomes for their efforts
• Physical traits, such as energy and activity, allow individuals to show their competence through active engagement
• Skills: Yukl (2002) and Northouse (2004) note three important categories of skills for effective leadership
  • Technical Skills: specialized knowledge about a specific type of work, activity, procedure, or technique
  • Interpersonal Skills: understanding of feelings and attitudes of others, knowing how to work with people in individual and cooperative work relationships
  • Conceptual Skills: ability to conceptualize, think logically, reason analytically, deductively and inductively

Effective leaders need all three sets of skills.

• Leadership Types:
  • Effective leader: This is a leader who influences behaviour under given circumstances to achieve the required result
  • Visionary Leadership: These are leaders who command following by creating the picture of a desirable end which all should work towards
  • Charismatic leaders: These are leaders who inspire leadership through their exceptional leadership qualities
  • Transformational Leaders: These are leaders who use ordinary activities, incidents, resources or opportunities to produce enduringly outstanding results

Signs of Leaderships Effectiveness in Managing School System

• The rate of staff and student turnover – the more the teachers and students stay the more effective is the leadership
• The linear size of student/pupil population
• The performance of students in all the aspects of the key domains
• The attendance and involvement of Parents and teachers in shaping the development of the school
• Performance in external academic competitions

Students creative and innovative ability

Ultimate Motivation for Leadership in Schools

• “Nigeria stands on the threshold of what could be the greatest transformation in its history. By 2030, it will be one of the few countries in the world that has young workers in plentiful supply. Youth, not oil, will be the country’s most valuable resource in the twenty-first century.”

Next Generation Project Report (2010)

The challenge …..

• We can become part of this history by creating an environment that will develop these leaders of tomorrow
• Are you available for service ???

“Every group of people must out of relative obscurity discover its mission and either fulfil it or betray it—–Future generation has been given unto us; we can make or mar it, if we make it we shall not be forgotten and if we mar it we shall not be forgiven”- Fanz Fanon

Concluding Remarks

If you can’t fly, run, if you can’t run walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.

Thanks