Getting Started

Allow your leadership skills and knowledge to develop

just like the growing tree

It can always be difficult to get started but hopefully you will have the strength of character and motivation to get on with it.

The task of running a school requires imagination and common sense. But there are also certain principles of management which can provide useful guidance for the practising school head, and a number of these are examined in this module. The principles covered here include: aspects of human and public relations, communications, delegation, decision making and problem solving. We hope that the module will encourage you to reflect on your own performance and consider ways in which you might improve your own school management processes to become more effective in your role as school head and as a manager of change.

After working through the first two module you should be able to:

• discuss the contribution which management theory can make to under­standing management practice


• relate your responsibilities and duties as a school head to the functions of the Guyana


• Government and its Ministries and especially the Ministry of Education


• differentiate between the main functions of the head of a school and identify some of the tasks associated with each


• understand the importance of good human relations and communica­tions in promoting a suitable working environment for teachers, pupils and non‑teaching staff in a school


• outline the importance of delegation and outline the key principles and procedures involved in delegation in schools


• explain decision making and problem solving and list the major factors which contribute towards effective practice


• describe the nature of the change process and identify the key manage­ment functions and tasks associated with the effective management of school

We hope that you do not find the work too onerous or too difficult and that what you have read so far is helping you in your current post. The first modules are more theoretical than the rest and the programme becomes much more practical as you go along.

We encourage you to keep working at it and are confident, from the many comments of graduates of the programme, that you will find it beneficial in your work and a great step to higher things.