School Leadership and HR Management

No school can grow beyond the imagination of its leader. School leadership is to come up to the expectations of its stakeholders. During the last couple of decades the world has experienced sudden outburst of growth especially in the field of ICT. During our times of schooling, the words like computer, pen-drive, PPTs, google, YouTube, email, smart boards etc.  were  almost unheard of but now they are  an integral part of educational jargon.

 School leaders during olden days used to be authoritative and students were submissive. But now you cannot lead your school only with that sort of  authority. The only authority you require as an educational leader is the authority to manage well.  Students and parents have become more demanding. They ask questions more frequently which sometimes makes us mum.
The biggest challenge before the school leaders is the lower level of achievement of learning outcomes of students in various subjects/classes. That is why some students of class X might not even solve the basic sums of Mathematics, say of Class V. Some of them may even fail to read and understand the text books of junior classes. Our humiliating performance in PISA is a stark reminder of our lower levels of learning at school levels which does not sharpen their problem solving, analytical and critical thinking abilities. I mean to say that this is a very serious challenge before all of us and we need to face this challenge head on. The root of the problem is the poor reading and numeracy abilities in students of primary classes. We need to develop a different system of evaluation of teachers in which the level of achievement of  learning outcomes becomes the basis for their  pedagogical abilities. It needs to be done at regular intervals starting from class one and simultaneously fixing the responsibility of teachers for the non-attainment of learning outcomes in each class.

Our NCERT text books are written by extremely experienced   teachers. They contain so many activities which teachers are supposed to demonstrate and students are expected to do themselves in the classrooms. This will reinforce their learning and will help them construct knowledge in their own ways. The print rich textbooks of NCERT need to be adequately explored. This needs to be very closely monitored by the school leaders. As per my experience-teachers skip these activities in their race to cover the mandated syllabus.
Focusing on Class X & XII is not bad but focusing only on X & XII will not change the system. We are consistently growing on learning deficit. We fail nearly 25-20% students in Class IX and give good result in class X. We further fail 20-25% in Class XI and then give good result in class XII. This percentage will be even higher in other government /private schools. Is it the correct model? We have been ignoring the root and caring the fruit. This needs to be reversed. This requires such school leaders who must feel the necessity of achieving well defined learning outcomes starting from Class I.
Another challenge in our schools is the preparedness of teachers for curricular transactions on day to day basis. Most of our teachers move to their class rooms as experienced teachers but they don’t enter the class rooms as prepared teachers. The preparedness of teachers shall bring qualitative improvement in the learning attainment of their students. The school leaders need to ensure that teachers plan their period wise transaction of topics. The Teaching Diaries being used by most of  the teaches in KVs & JNVs indicate fortnightly or monthly planning. There is a dire need to shift to daily planning of each period. Micro level lesson planning of each period is the need of the hour. This must contain space for regular remediation.(You may refer to my second post on my blog: talk2jugal.blogspot.com)
Stress level of students poses another major challenge before school leaders. Students are confronted with multi-pronged issues like high expectations of parents, peer pressure, indifferent and uncaring attitude of some teachers in schools, use of social media etc. This stress level goes to its extreme near final exams and unfortunately some students, when they fail to cope-up with stress, take extreme steps. This needs to be very carefully handled by the Counsellor, Teachers and the Principals.  Sometimes poor handling of such students by us aggravates the problem. I have realized that cool and calm approach, in which you think about the welfare of students, ultimately yields positive results and many such students can be brought to the main stream with your acumen and involvement of parents and teachers.
Reading habits of teachers also are on the decline. They, like other members of our society, remain pre-occupied on social media and do not read books for their professional growth. If teachers do not regularly read - how can they keep their students well informed? If gold rusts, what will iron do? School leaders need to take a lead role in this regard. During monthly staff meetings, we may start a special discussion on the books read by teachers during a particular month. Besides this we may also institute awards for the voracious readers who might l be honored in the Annual Day Function. 
The challenges of school leaders are getting multiplied with the passage of time.  Another   foremost challenge appears to be the selection of teachers and their attrition rate. The bright students do not opt to be teaches. Most of them end up in this profession as the last option. The attrition rate of teachers from Navodaya Vidyalayas to Kendriya Vidyalayas is quite high due to location of JNVs. The attrition rate of KVS staff to other organizations can also not be ruled out.
HR Management is a skill which we learn after applying common sense solutions to our day to day problems which we confront in our schools. School leaders who inspire their subordinates to work with  team spirit , succeed in achieving the set targets as per their  institutional plan. For this they need to keep right people and right places. The duties and responsibilities need to be assigned as per their talent and taste. For example if some teacher volunteers to be In-charge of Examinations and also has the ability to do the same - must be assigned that job. What I mean to say is that no square pegs need to be fitted in round holes.
Human relations are very sensitive. They may get hurt even with a tilt in your eye brow. School leaders need to meet and greet people with a smile. If you cannot offer a glass of water, please ask your stakeholder to sit. If you cannot offer him a seat just meet him with a smile and after listening to her/him calmly say good bye. A curve of smile straightens most of the problems.
Appreciation in public and reprimand in private does wonders. Even those who are obstinate in their behavior show improvement with this approach. When your subordinate realizes that you really want to hone up her/his abilities-they start exuding confidence and slowly become part of the team. But if with your all out efforts no improvement is shown then we must also not restrain from disciplining such staff. To keep your garden in good shape you need to weed out wilderness.  
In a nut shell I may say that each school has its own challenges and opportunities which may vary on account of its location, physical resources, students and staff. School leaders need to develop a vision for their respective schools and should continuously strive to realize it with their own wisdom and resourcefulness.