Wednesday, May 10, 2006

by Oliver Mills

Recently throughout the Caribbean, there have been a number of discussions on the issue of what makes a school good. Generally, some educators say well trained teachers, comfortable facilities, a positive link with the community, and strong leadership by principals.

A recent article in the Nation News of Barbados commented on this issue of what makes a good school. It was stated that a radio moderator gave six criteria for considering what a good school is.

These include being free from violence and drugs, having an environment that encourages high academic achievement, a balanced curriculum, providing an education for citizenship, and a dedicated staff.

These are admirable ideas, but do not stand on their own. In fact, they are all connected. Being free from violence and drugs is necessary, if students are to give their full attention to the learning process, and not see the school as a market for these products, where quick dollars could be made, and education made to look irrelevant for the purposes of a more fruitful and meaningful life.

When a school is free from these evils, purposeful and positive learning can occur, discipline and values treasured, and all this results in an enhanced performance, as well as a healthy lifestyle, where enlightened minds flourish, and are not destroyed by the bad effects of drugs and the consequences of school violence.

An environment that supports high academic achievement is a prerequisite for school success. It means that the policies of the school recognize and encourage success, value achievement, and reward students for it.

An unsupportive environment is one that castigates students, devalues their self-esteem, disempowers them, where teachers put their own interests first, and not that of those placed in their care and protection.

A supportive environment at school builds a sense of self among students, motivates them, encourages self-confidence and self-regard, and challenges their intellect. The school then becomes a learning organization where knowledge is promoted, and new initiatives that enhance the interests of students, staff and the institution are constantly being fostered and implemented.

A balanced curriculum is critical to having a good school. This has to do with making the curriculum relevant and interesting by organizing it to cater for the varied interests of students and their prospects outside of the school environment, in terms of the careers they would like to pursue later.

It also means having the kind of subject offerings that provide for technical skills, an academic orientation, cultural awareness, and the development of the personality. This is connected to training for citizenship, which seeks to enhance students’ knowledge concerning the structure and functions of their governmental institutions, acquainting them with how policies are made and their effects, and creating a sense of nationalism and patriotism in students, which makes them proud of their country. Coupled with all of this, is a dedicated and committed staff. A dedicated staff is professional, interested in the students as clients, seeks out and meets their needs, expands their horizons, puts the concerns of students ahead of its own, and shows compassion, care, and understanding.

The dedicated staff also coaches and counsels its students, becomes a model of ethical and professional behaviour, as well as mentors on how life should be embraced and managed. In addition, a good school has an overriding philosophy of what it wants, and where it needs to go as well as strategies to get it there. The good school is a learning institution, which is open to new ideas and methods of doing things. It institutes best practices, creates its own, and shares them with other schools.

The good school is also well managed, utilizing the best and most modern management strategies, linked to its objectives and mission. It involves the community, stresses quality of performance, critical thinking, and provides the most appropriate facilities which advance the practice of knowledge, and promotes what is best in the culture.

A good school moulds good citizens, contributes to a good society, advocates family values, fosters respect for what is different, promotes tolerance, and ensures that knowledge is managed for the benefit of its students and the society at large.

It seeks to foster social unity and not division, is an advocate of respect, dignity and integrity for all, and promotes principles that result from a consensus of what is desirable, necessary and good.

The good school, then, is a microcosm of the good society, and of what is possible, when education is seriously used to change the direction and purpose of a society, employing dedicated professionals determined to make things really happen for the better.

  Most popular articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed

  Printable version