i

Continuous Professional Development

Diploma in Effective School Leadership
(CPD-DESL)

Student Manual

Module 1: OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP &

WORKING WITH PARENTS AND THE WIDER COMMUNITY
4th Edition

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Please cite this publication as:

UR-CE (2020) Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective

School Leadership (CPD-DESL), Student Manual, Module 1: Overview of
School Leadership & working with parents and the wider community, Forth
Edition, Kigali.

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Continuous Professional
Development Diploma in Effective
School Leadership
(CPD-DESL)

STUDENT MANUAL

MODULE 1: OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

& WORKING WITH PARENTS AND THE WIDER
COMMUNITY

4th EDITION, OCTOBER 2020

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES III
LIST OF TABLES IV
LIST OF ACRONYMS V
ABOUT THE AUTHORS VII
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IX
FORWORD XI

MODULE ONE: OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND WORKING WITH

PARENTS AND THE WIDER COMMUNITY 1
Learning outcomes 1

UNIT ONE: OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP 2

Introduction 2
Learning outcomes 3
Section 1: School Leadership and School Management 4
Section 2: Key Characteristics of School Leadership 9
Section 3: Key Roles of the School Leader 15
Section 4: School Leadership Models 18
Section 5: Leadership Styles 29
Section 6: Professional Standards for School Leaders in Rwanda 32

UNIT TWO: GENDER AND INCLUSIVENESS IN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP 41

Introduction 41
Learning Outcomes 43
Section 1: Key Terms 44
Section 2: Status of Gender Equality in Rwandan Education 48

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Section 3: Gender in Schools 55

Section 4: Gender in Classrooms 60
Section 5: Making Schools Gender Responsive 63
Section 6: Understanding Inclusive Education 66

UNIT THREE: WORKING WITH PARENTS AND THE WIDER COMMUNITY 75

Introduction 75
Learning Outcomes 75
Self-Evaluation 76
Section 1: Research on the involvement of parents and the wider
community in the school 79
Section 2: Epstein’s Model for School-Family-Community Partnerships 83
Section 3: Building School-Community Partnerships in Rwandan Schools 85
Section 4: Involving the Wider Community in Achieving Inclusive Education 87
Section 5: Strengthening the Capacity of the School General Assembly
Committees 98
Section 6: Planning and Conducting Effective SGA and SGAC meetings 109
Conclusion 112

MODULE REFERENCES 113

APPENDICES 119

Appendix 1: Definitions Education Indicators 119

Appendix 2: Self-Evaluation Tool for Standards for Effective
School Leadership 122
Appendix 3: Multiple-Choice Questions for Module 1 151

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Leadership versus authority 5

Figure 2: Primary and Secondary Processes of School Leadership 6

Figure 3: Components of Professional Capital in the school (Fullan, 2014) 16

Figure 4: Examples of models: the solar system (Left) and the human heart (right)18

Figure 5: Models of school leadership (VVOB, 2017, based on Bush, 2008) 20

Figure 6: Situational Leadership (VVOB, 2017 based on Leithwood et al., 1999) 27

Figure 7: Leadership Styles (Remmerswaal, 2015) 30

Figure 8: Eight dimensions of successful school leadership 33

Figure 9: Professional Standards of School Leadership (REB, 2018) 35

Figure 10: Gender equality and gender equity 45

Figure 11: Gender Bottlenecks, barriers, options and opportunities in Education 56

Figure 12: Components of Inclusive Education 67

Figure 13: Differences between special, integrated and inclusive education 58

Figure 14: Example of poster on barriers to inclusive education 70

Figure 15: Example of a mountain diagram 72

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Distinguishing leadership and management 4

Table 2: List of Values 12

Table 3: Professional standards for school leadership (REB, 2018) 35

Table 4: Roles and Responsibilities of school leaders per standard (REB, 2018) 37

Table 5: Selected gender-disaggregated education indicators 48

Table 6: Selected indicators on the participation of women in education 50

Table 7: Gender stereotypes in schools 57

Table 8: Typical Role Distributions in classrooms and schools 61

Table 9: Self-Evaluation on School – Parent/Community Partnerships 76

Table 10: Roles and Responsibilities of Parent Representatives and

school Leaders 103

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LIST OF ACRONYMS
CBC Competence-Based Curriculum

DDE District Director of Education

DEO District Education Officer

DHS Demography and Health Survey

GDI Gender Development Index

GMO Gender Monitoring Office

GER Gross Enrolment Rate

GIR Gross Intake Rate

IE Inclusive Education

MINEDUC Ministry of Education

NER Net Enrolment Rate

NIR Net Intake Rate

NISR National Institute of Statistics in Rwanda

REB Rwanda Education Board

SEI Sector Education Inspector

SGAC School General Assembly Committee

SGA School General Assembly

SIP School Improvement Plan

SRGBV School-related gender-based violence

United Nations Convention on the Rights of
UNCRC
the Child
UR-CE University of Rwanda – College of Education

VAWG Violence Against Women and Girls

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr Claudien NTAHOMVUKIYE (PhD) is a Lecturer at the University of Rwanda-College
of Education. He holds a PhD in Educational Leadership and Management from the
Witwatersrand University, South Africa since 2012. He has over 20 years of work
experience in the field of education where he occupied various posts at secondary
and tertiary level of Education in Rwanda. He has been involved in various education
related projects, especially in the field of school leadership and management. Dr
Ntahomvukiye has published a series of articles related to school leadership and
management for school improvement.

Dr Irénée NDAYAMBAJE (PhD) is the Director General of Rwanda Education Board

(REB). Before joining REB he was a Lecturer at the University of Rwanda-College
of Education. He holds a PhD in Educational Planning from Kenyatta University. He
has a wide teaching, research, publication and consultancy experience in the areas
of (i) Research Methods in Education and Social Sciences, (ii) Educational Planning
and Policy Formulation, (iii) Monitoring and Evaluation and (iv) Open, Distance and
eLearning.

Dr Gabriel Nizeyimana (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer of Education at the UR-CE.

He holds a PhD in Teacher Education from the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg (South Africa) and a Master’s degree in Curriculum Development from
the University of Natal (South Africa). He has taught at University level for 21 years.
His research focuses on student engagement in teacher education, teacher beliefs,
study strategies, teaching and learning. Dr Gabriel has conducted consultancies in
training of teacher educators in learner centred pedagogy, training of school leaders
in effective school leadership, implementation of CBC in Higher Education and in
Postgraduate Supervision.

Dr Philothère Ntawiha (PhD) is a Lecturer at University of Rwanda-College of

Education. He holds a PhD in Economics of Education and Educational Planning.
His areas of interest include: educational planning, internal efficiency of education
systems, equity, public and private partnerships in education, peace education,
human rights education, and research methods in education. Philothère has wide
teaching, research and publication experience in his fields of expertise.

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Mr Jean Claude Ndagijimana is an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Rwanda-College

of Education. He holds a Master of Education Degree in Curriculum (Higher Education).
He has taught at university level for over ten years. He has taught courses related to
curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. He has conducted research and consultancies
in the field of curriculum development, teaching, learning and assessment at both
secondary and higher education levels. He has also been engaged in the field of training
of trainers in different areas of education.

Mr Dieudonné Tuyishime is an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Rwanda – College

of Education (UR-CE) where he has taught for the last 3 years. He holds a Master’s Degree
in Education (Leadership and Management) from Mount Kenya University. His research
interests include school leadership, teacher motivation and guidance and counselling.

Mrs Chantal Kabanda Dusabe is the Strategic Advisor in School Leadership at VVOB-
Rwanda. She holds a Master of Education in Educational Administration from the
University of Eastern Africa, Baraton - Kenya. Before joining VVOB in June 2017, she was
a lecturer at the University of Rwanda-College of Education.

Mr Stefaan Vande Walle is the Online Learning Manager at VVOB Rwanda. He holds
Master’s Degrees from the University of Leuven, Belgium (geography), Radboud
University Nijmegen, The Netherlands (project planning) and the Open University, UK
(online and distance education). He has been working for VVOB since 2008 in Cambodia,
South Africa and Rwanda. His areas of specialization include school leadership, STEM
education, capacity development, pedagogy and online learning.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We owe a large debt of thanks to the authors of this guide: Dr Claudien Ntahomvukiye,
Dr Irénée Ndayambaje, Dr Gabriel Nizeyimana, Dr Philothère Ntawiha, Mr Dieudonné
Tuyishime, Chantal Kabanda Dusabe and Stefaan Vande Walle.

We extend a special word of gratitude to Karel Binon (Katholiek Onderwijs

Vlaanderen), Mieke Van Vlasselaer (Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen), Diane Mills
(UNESCO Consultant), Lieve Leroy (VVOB), Regine Muramutse (VVOB), Emma
Rubagumya (VVOB), Dr. Celestin Kayonga (UR-CE), Dr. Gaspard Gaparayi (UR-CE),
Thacien Musabyimana (UR-CE), John Musiime (UR-CE), Pontien Macumi (UR-CE),
Ali Kaleeba (UR-CE), Runyange Albert (UR-CE), Alex B. Kabuto (UR-CE), Dorothy
Tukahabwa (UR-CE), Uwera Marie Providence (Save the Children/ Mureke Dusome),
Solange Umwizerwa (Save the Children/ Mureke Dusome), Sofia Cozzolino (Save the
Children/ Mureke Dusome), Innocent Uwimana (School Leadership and Management
Unit/ REB) and Eugene Rukeba (School Leadership and Management Unit/ REB),
Kwizera Jean de Dieu (Head Teacher, GS Bumbogo), Sewase Jean Claude (Head
Teacher, GS Busanza), Mushimiyimana Aimée Béata, (Head Teacher, GS Gihogwe),
Hategekimana Marc, (former Head Teacher, GS Kabuga) and Mukaneza Jeannine
(Head Teacher, GS Kimisagara) who have played crucial additional roles in developing
and reviewing the course text.

We also acknowledge the valuable contribution of the VVOB online learning team
– Piet Roos and Fred Hirwa who dedicated their time and expertise to digitise the
content of this programme.

This programme would not have been possible without the financial support from the
Belgian Government, Mastercard Foundation and UNESCO/OFID Fund for selected
parts of this programme.

Finally, we like to thank the Ministry of Education in Rwanda (MINEDUC), Rwanda

Education Board (REB) and the University of Rwanda, College of Education (UR-CE)
for their continued support to education in Rwanda in general and to this Continuous
Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership for Educational
leaders in particular.

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FOREWORD
FOREWORD
FOREWORDS

Foreword Dr. Ndayambaje Irénée

Director General Rwanda Education Board (REB)

The Rwandan Government considers education as a cornerstone

pillar to achieving the country’s envisioned socio-economic
transformation. In this regard, effective school leadership is
paramount to guarantee that education policies and programmes
are yielding the expected results, which will be observed through
learning achievement and school performance. Therefore, it is
essential to reconsider the role of school leaders.

In the 21st century, the role of school leaders has become more complex than ever before. School
leaders are required to be innovators and open to changes as they guide teachers and learners
toward individual and collective targets. Often the biggest barrier to innovation is our own way
of thinking; scholars would say. Hence, embracing change requires competent school leaders who
can design a strategy, make sense of an unpredictable environment, provide a vision for turning
change into improved education quality, influence others to commit to this vision and then bring
on board a” potential stakeholders.

Modern school leaders are first and foremost educators. Not only educators in the sense that
they stand in front of a classroom, but educators who continuously collaborate together with
them teachers and learners to improve the quality of teaching and learning. This calls school
leaders to be always ready for learning so as to model the saying that “Learning starts at birth and
ends at death”.

This one-year Continuous Professional Development (CPO) course was designed in a tripartite
partnership between VVOB, Rwanda Education Board (REB) and University of Rwanda-College
of Education (UR-CE). The content revolves around five key professional standards for school
leaders, namely (i) creating strategic direction, (ii) leading learning, (iii) leading teaching, (iv)
managing the school as an organisation, and (iv) working with parents and the local community.

Rwanda Education Board expects much from this programme. Therefore, I call upon all beneficiaries
to connect the subject content of this programme with the desired positive changes and better
learning outcomes in Rwandan schools.

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MODULE ONE

OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND WORKING

WITH PARENTS AND THE WIDER COMMUNITY
This module introduces the concepts of school leadership and management.
Secondly, it introduces gender and inclusive education as crosscutting topics for this
programme. Finally, it describes the professional standard of working with parents
and the wider community in school leadership.

Learning outcomes
By the end of this module, participants should be able to:
 Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts school leadership and
management;
 Explain strengths and weaknesses of school leadership models;
 Describe school leadership practices and their implication on the teaching and
learning process for improving students’ achievements;
 Explain principles of parent-community-school partnerships;
 Demonstrate an understanding of inclusiveness and gender in education;
 Explain how involving parents and local communities can contribute to inclusive
education;
 Describe and critically engage with different leadership models;
 Establish strategies to enhance collaboration between the school, parents and
the wider community as an instrument for improving the quality of teaching
and learning;
 Act as role model in the community;
 Demonstrate equity and inclusiveness in school leadership;
 Show empathy in executing leadership roles;
 Value the importance of adopting various leadership styles according to the
context;
 Recognize importance of equity in school leadership;
 Appreciate the importance of involving parents and the wider community in the
school.

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UNIT ONE
OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
Introduction
School leaders play a crucial role in creating the conditions for effective teaching
and learning. No school has sustainably improved the quality of education without
effective school leadership (Leithwood, Harris, & Hopkins, 2008). Good leaders
identify the aspects of their schools on which to focus to help students learn. They do
this through various dimensions of leadership practices. In this unit, we will explore
what school leadership and school management mean. Different models and styles
of leadership will help us to reflect on our school leadership practices and identify
key elements of effective school leadership.

In this unit, we will explore what it means to be a leader in a school. What makes
a good school leader? Is a school leader the same as a school manager? We will
introduce various models and concepts of school leadership and management.
These models and concepts are useful to help you reflect on what your role as a
school leader means for you.

Activity 1
Individually, think about an outstanding school leader that you know and list down
the reasons why this leader is outstanding for you. After a few minutes, discuss
your list with your neighbour and try to agree on some key

Online activity 1:
Think about an outstanding school leader that you know and the reasons why this
leader is outstanding for you. Please provide 3 reasons in the text boxes provided.

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Learning outcomes
By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

 Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts school leadership and school

management;

 Explain school leadership practices and their implication on teaching and

learning process for improving students’ achievement;

 Critically evaluate different leadership models;

 Apply situational leadership to your school context;

 Show empathy in executing leadership roles;

 Value the importance of your role in achieving quality education.

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Section 1: School Leadership and School Management

Good school leaders perform both leadership and management tasks. Leadership
tasks refer to tasks that set a direction, motivate and inspire, such as providing vision
and strategy and leading change. Management tasks relate to planning and controlling
such as budgeting, organizing and staffing, problem solving and monitoring. While
managers are providing structure and frameworks of operation, leaders provide
inspiration.

Both leadership and management skills are fundamental to success. Without the
inspiration and motivation by the school leadership, staff would be unproductive.
Without structure, rules and management processes, they would be inefficient.
Management is about doing things right, leadership is about doing the right things.
Cuban (1988) and Kelchtermans & Piot (2013) link leadership with vision and change
while management is about implementing and executing decisions and preserving
the effective functioning of the organisation. They stress the importance of both
leadership and management. Table 1 summarizes the differences between leadership
and management (Kotter, 1988).

Table 1: Distinguishing leadership and management

Managers Leaders

Plan and budget Establish direction

Maintain Change and innovate

Control and solve problems Inspire and motivate

Short term view Long term view

Do things right Do right things

Source: Kotter, 1988

Some authors stress that focusing too much on the distinction between school
management and school leadership is not helpful (Bush, 2008; Bush & Glover, 2014).
For example, the development of a School Improvement Plan (leadership task) cannot
be separated from the implementation and monitoring of the plan (management

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task). Many tasks of a school leader have a leadership and a management

component. For example, financial management of the school also contains tasks
related to planning, vision and staff motivation, which are considered leadership
tasks. Successful management of a school requires strong leadership skills. The role
of the school leader is to lead and manage the school.

Finally, good leadership is not easy to define (Cuban, 1988). We recognize good
school leadership, but it is difficult to clearly identify what makes a good school leader.
Leadership is not the same as being the boss, which refers to formal authority (Figure
1). What we see as good leadership in schools also changes over time. The most
important change is that school leadership has become more complex. Schools and
schooling are being given ever bigger responsibilities for children’s development and
for contributing to and supporting the schools’ local communities (Pont et al., 2008).
As a result, many schools have seen a diversification of their leadership, through
the involvement of deputy head teachers, school general assembly committees and
different forms of teacher leadership: school-based mentors, subject leaders and
teachers who lead the various teams and clubs in a school. Even learners can take up
leadership tasks within a school.

Figure 1: Leadership versus authority (www.cleverism.com)

Another way to look at leadership and management tasks is through the distinction
between primary and secondary processes (Figure 2). Primary processes are
processes that are directly related to the learning process such as teaching quality,
curriculum implementation, learner repeating and dropping out, care… (Scheerens,
1990). Secondary processes are related to the creation of suitable conditions for the
primary processes and the learning process of the team: personnel, infrastructure,

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finance, quality control… The primary processes correspond with leadership tasks
and the secondary processes with management tasks. Both primary and secondary
processes are important tasks for school leaders. Beginning school leaders often
focus more on finding their way in the secondary processes. As secondary processes
create the conditions for the primary processes, having attention for both is crucial
for school leaders.

Figure 2: Primary and Secondary Processes of School Leadership (Scheerens, 1990, adapted by VVOB)

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Activity 2
Individually, think about your activities as a school leader during an average week
in the school year. Do the following:
1. Make a list of your activities and how long they take
2. Classify your activities into primary and secondary processes
3. Calculate the percentage of time invested in primary and secondary
processes

After classification, discuss with your neighbour the balance of time invested in
primary and secondary processes. Answer the following questions after your
discussion:
1. Do you find your balance between primary and secondary processes ideal?
If not, what would you like to change?
2. How could you change the balance between primary processes and
secondary processes?
3. Is there a difference between head teachers and deputy head teachers? In
what way?

Online activity 2
Reflect on your activities as a school leader and how long you spend on various
tasks. Classify these tasks in primary or secondary processes. Now, reply to the
following questions in the forum. Afterwards respond to what your colleagues
have posted:
1. Do you find your balance between primary and secondary processes ideal?
If not, what would you like to change?
2. How could you change the balance between primary processes and
secondary processes?
3. Is there a difference between head teachers and deputy head teachers? In
what way?

Spending time on primary processes has the biggest impact on learning outcomes.
“The closer educational leaders get to the core business of teaching and learning,
the more likely they are to have a positive impact on students’ outcomes” (Robinson,
Lloyd, & Rowe, 2008, p. 664). The secondary processes are the basic conditions
that need to be in place before school leaders can focus on the primary processes.

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Therefore, they should not be neglected. In Module 3 (Managing the School as an

Organisation), we will discuss in more detail the main secondary processes. The
other modules focus on the primary processes.

Differences in the balance between primary and secondary processes can be due to
the context of the school (size, socio-economic status). Often, deputy head teachers
will spend a higher share of their time on primary processes. This exercise can be
useful to do with your teachers. Let them keep track of their activities during a week
(teaching, preparing lessons, marking tests and homework, attending meetings,
administration etc.) and discuss the results.

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Section 2: Key Characteristics of School Leadership

Rather than focusing on one definition for school leadership, some authors have
identified key characteristics of school leadership. What does it mean to be a
school leader? Bush and Glover (2014) identified three key characteristics of school
leadership: influence, values and vision.

2.1 Leadership and Influence

One definition considers leadership as a “social influence process whereby influence

is exerted by one person (or group) over other people (or groups) to structure the
activities and relationships in a group or organisation” (Yukl, Gordon, & Taber, 2002,
p. 3).

This definition includes several key elements (Bush, 2008):

 The focus is on influence rather than on authority. Influencing is not the same
as imposing or controlling. Both influence and authority are dimensions of
leadership, but authority is based on formal position, such as that of the head
teacher, while influence can be exercised by anyone in the school (Figure 1).
In this sense, leadership is independent of formal positions while authority
is linked directly to it. For instance, a head teacher who has been officially
appointed has legal authority. However, this appointed head teacher may not
be trusted because of various reasons such as incompetence, non-acceptable
behaviour, etc. It will be difficult for him to influence teachers. On the other
hand, a teacher with high competence and strong social reputation may
influence colleagues although she/he does not have legal positional authority.

 The process is intentional. The person who is exercising influence is doing so

to achieve certain goals.

 Influence may be exercised by groups as well as individuals. This supports

ideas such as leadership teams and distributed leadership.

2.2 Leadership and Values

Influencing can be done with good or bad intentions. It is neutral as it does not
explain what goals should be pursued. However, leadership is linked with values.
Leaders are expected to base their actions on clear personal and professional values.
This idea reflects the growing interest in moral leadership (Bush, 2008).

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School leaders´ values are key components for successful leadership. Research
shows clear links between leaders’ personal qualities and leadership success (Day &
Leithwood, 2007). The most successful school leaders are open-minded and ready to
learn from others. They are flexible rather than dogmatic, but with respect for their
core values. They are persistent in their high expectations of others, and they are
emotionally intelligent and optimistic. Such characteristics explain why successful
school leaders facing difficult conditions are often able to achieve results against the
odds (Leithwood et al., 2008).

Values are not about writing values on the wall. They are expressed through the way
we act, how we live the values we promote? Values are about who we want to be as
a school leader.

Activity 3
Individually, think about your educational background and values that influenced
you to be who you are. Think about the reasons why you chose education and
relate it to what you are doing well as a school leader. Write your story on the
flashcard and share with your neighbour.
1. why did you choose education?
2. when did you make the decision?
what are you good at as an educational leader? Next, in pairs, and from your
respective stories:
1. Choose something from your partner’s story, something that touched you,
something that says something about who that person is… and find a symbolic
representation for that (figure, drawing, symbol…).
2. Present the representation of your partner to the whole group and explain
what values it represents.

Online activity 3
Think about your educational background and values that influenced you to be
who you are. Think about the reasons why you chose education and relate it to
what you are doing well as a school leader. Write a short story in the forum using
the following guiding questions:
1. why did you choose education?
2. when did you make the decision?
3. what are you good at as an educational leader?
Now read your colleagues’ stories. Select at least one that touches you and write a
forum reply with your feelings on his or her story.

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Activity 4
In Table 2 you find a list of values. From the list you will choose two that are your
fundamental values. The word list (Brown, 2018) shows a list of values but maybe
one of yours has been left off the list. There is room to write more in. You can
find that list on the right-hand column. The task is to pick the two that you hold
as most important. Just two. Yes, your first glance at this word list and you will
probably already see more than two that you want to choose. But it is important to
be selective. As Jim Collins (2001) wrote: “If you have more than three priorities,
you have no priorities.” If everything on the list is important, then nothing is truly
a driver for you.

Online activity 4
From the list of values provided, choose two that are your fundamental values.
Please provide two values in the text box provided online.
Your facilitator will post the results of the activity in the forum. Look at the results.
Are they what you expected? Write down your ideas in the forum.

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Table 2: List of Values

Accountability Environment Initiative

Achievement Efficiency Integrity
Adaptability Equality Intuition
Adventure Ethics Job security
Altruism Excellence Joy
Ambition Fairness Justice
Authenticity Faith Kindness
Balance Family Knowledge
Beauty Financial stability Leadership
Being the best Forgiveness Learning
Belonging Freedom Legacy
Career Friendship Leisure
Caring Fun Love
Collaboration Future generations Loyalty
Commitment Generosity Making a difference
Community Giving back Nature
Compassion Grace Openness
Competence Gratitude Optimism
Confidence Growth Order
Connection Harmony Parenting
Contentment Health Patience
Contribution Home Patriotism
Cooperation Honesty Peace
Courage Hope Perseverance
Creativity Humility Personal fulfilment
Curiosity Humour Power
Dignity Inclusion Pride
Diversity Independence Recognition
Reliability Simplicity Understanding
Resourcefulness Spirituality Uniqueness

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Respect Sportsmanship Usefulness

Responsibility Stewardship Vision
Risk -taking Success Vulnerability
Safety Teamwork Wealth
Security Thrift Well-being
Self-discipline Time Wholeheartedness
Self-expression Tradition Wisdom
Self-respect Travel Write your own:
Serenity Trust Write your own:
Service Truth Write your own:

Source: Brown, 2018

This activity can be useful to do with your teachers or other stakeholders in your
school. For example, at the start of the process to develop a SIP or a vision and
mission for the school, it can be useful to start with discussing the values of the
school.

2.3 Leadership and Vision

Vision is a third important component of leadership (Bush & Glover, 2014). Beare,
Caldwell, & Millikan (1997, p. 99) write that “outstanding leaders have a vision of
their schools - a mental picture of a preferred future - which is shared with all in the
school community”. They formulate ten generalizations about leadership of which
three relate directly to vision. These three are:
1. Good leaders have a vision for their schools.
2. This vision must be communicated in a way which creates commitment
among all those who are involved in the school.
3. Good leaders pay attention to institutionalising the vision.

An example of a vision:

G.S. Kimironko will be the first diverse school system to work with families and
the community to successfully educate all of its students at high levels.

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Having a vision does not mean that school leaders should not be open to new ideas
and criticism. Fullan (1992) warns that overly visionary leaders may damage rather
than improve their schools:

“The current emphasis on vision in leadership can be misleading. A vision can

blind leaders in a number of ways. The charismatic principal who ‘radically
transforms the school’ in four or five years can . . . be blinding and misleading
as a role model . . . Principals are blinded by their own vision when they feel
they must manipulate the teachers and the school culture to conform to it.”
(Fullan, 1992, p. 19).

In Module 2 (Creating Strategic Direction for the School), we will discuss in more
detail the process of developing a vision and mission for a school.

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Section 3: Key Roles of the School Leader

Activity 5

In the previous section, we identified 3 key characteristics of school leaders: they

influence others, based on values and a vision for the school. Starting from these
characteristics, what roles should school leaders play in their schools, according to
you? Agree on the most important roles.

This activity is not available online. It is replaced by a quiz.

In this section, we will discuss two major roles of the school leader: as an educator
and as an agent of change.

3.1 School leaders as educators

A successful school leader is an educator, not in the traditional sense of a teacher

who stands in front of the class, but as a modern educator who can stimulate and
motivate others to learn (Verbiest, 2014). Michael Fullan has written a lot on the role
of the school leader as a “leader of learning” in the school (Fullan, 2014). Being an
educational leader can be considered as another key element of school leadership.
John Hattie (2009, p. 83) found that school leaders who help teachers to establish
goals and create ‘safe’ environments for teachers to criticize, question, and support
other teachers to reach these goals together are the school leaders who have most
effect on learning outcomes.

An important role of school leaders is to lead teachers in a process of learning to

improve their teaching (Fullan, 2014, p. 55). In their influential study, Robinson (et
al., 2008, p. 58) found that school leaders who make the biggest impact on learning
are those who “participate as a learner” with teachers in helping to move the school
forward.

Leading learning in a school does not mean only giving trainings to teachers, nor does
it mean observing individual teachers and giving them feedback. Leading learning
means creating an environment in the school that helps everyone to perform to
the best of his/ her abilities and to improve continuously. Fullan uses the concept
of professional capital (Figure 3).

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Figure 3: Components of Professional Capital in the school (Fullan, 2014)

Figure 3: Components of Professional Capital in the school (Fullan, 2014)

Professional capital is the result of the interaction of three components: human

capital, social capital and decisional capital (Figure 3). In a school, human capital
refers mostly to the quality of teachers in the school - their teaching competences and
qualifications. Human capital must be complemented by social capital. Social capital
is about how people working together to achieve common goals. A few strong, but
isolated teachers do not make a good school, as a few good football players do not
make a good team. Social capital consists of the quality and quantity of interactions
and relationships among people. Social capital in a school affects teachers’ access to
knowledge and information, their expectations and trust, and their commitment to
work together for a common cause. Decisional capital refers to the quality of decisions
being made by individual teachers and teams. Professional development involving
teams or groups of teachers, rather than individual professional development, helps
to develop the professional capital of the school (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012).

“The role of school leaders is to build professional capital across and beyond
the school” (Fullan, 2014, p. 71).

Social capital improves individuals more than individuals improve the group. For
example, it is very hard for a weak teacher who enters a highly collaborative school
to remain there without improving. On the other hand, a highly skilled teacher will
not perform well in a non-collaborative school (Fullan, 2014, p. 72).

Focusing on developing professional capital is also efficient for a school leader. The
more you invest in human, social and decisional capital, the less energy and the fewer
resources you need to spend on micro-management, and the more support you get
as teachers help each other. Micro-management means that you are closely involved
in all small tasks of your staff, and that you don’t delegate any tasks to others.

3.2 School Leaders as agents of change

As school leadership has grown more complex, the role of school leaders as
“gatekeepers” has grown (Kelchtermans & Piot, 2013). A gatekeeper guards the
entrance of a building and decides what and who comes in and out. The gatekeeper

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is the bridge between the inside and the outside. Similarly, a school leader finds him/
herself between different groups inside and outside the school, such as teachers,
parents, students and SEIs. These groups often have different and sometimes even
conflicting expectations, for example parents and teachers (Kelchtermans et al.,
2011). The school leader sits in between these groups, sometimes leaning more to
one group, sometimes more to another. It is a very intense and complex role which
requires strong emotional, communication and interpersonal skills.

The school leader is also the key person to bring external innovations to the school
context. He /she needs to understand the innovation, decide about the relevance
and feasibility, and lead its implementation in the school. Thereby, he/she needs
to be able to facilitate change processes in the school (see Module 3). Hereby, it is
crucial to keep the right balance between change and conservation: preserve what is
going well, change what can be improved. The capacity to implement changes in the
school is something that needs to be built in a school through the right professional
development. We will discuss this role of the school leader in more detail in the
section on change management in Module 3 of this Programme.

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Section 4: School Leadership Models

The growing importance of school leadership has been accompanied by theory
development, with new models emerging and established approaches being
redefined and further developed. This section aims at reviewing school leadership
models. A model is a simplified representation of reality. Think about how models
of the human heart of the solar system help us understand their structure (Figure
4). A model reduces the variety of practices and roles of school leaders to a few key
elements. Because of their simplicity, models are useful instruments to discuss and
understand the position and roles of school leaders.

Figure 4: Examples of models: the solar system (Left) and the human heart (right)

There are many models of school leadership (Bush, 2008; Bush & Glover, 2014).
Each model focuses on certain aspects of school leadership. These models reflect
different schools of thought, but also the history of school leadership research. We
can divide models in two categories: on the one hand, the concentrated views of
leadership (leadership is concentrated in the person of the formal leader) and on the
other hand the distributed view of leadership (where leadership is shared by several
members of the organization). Another way that we can classify the models is by
their focus on the key characteristics of school leadership (influence, values, vision,
change, educating).

Activity 6
Read the following two case studies and answer the following questions:
1. What is the difference between these two school leaders (School A Vs School
B)?
2. How would you call the leadership model that each school leader applies?

This activity is not available online. It is replaced by a quiz.

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Case Study 1

School ‘B’ is led by Mr John. He called all teachers into a meeting and informed them
about the Competence Based Curriculum. He told them that “This curriculum is a
national policy and you must implement it as it is. Guidelines are clear”. One teacher
raised her hand and asked “Excuse me Sir, I think we need time to understand it
and trainings on how to use it’. The head teacher promptly replied “Madam, it is
not negotiable, instructions are clear and after all you are qualified teachers”. The
meeting was ended and the teachers left.

Case Study 2

In School A, staff members already held key roles in teaching, learning, discipline
and attendance. The head teacher asked the deputy head teacher to provide a
clear link between the role of the school management team and the staff so that
the school work is discussed weekly as strategic meetings. During these meetings,
team members brought individual cases to discuss with colleagues and their shared
thinking informed the next step for the week ahead. Every member was very happy
that his/her views were considered. Each team member has developed skills so that
the good functioning of the team is now independent of the team leader.

Activity 7

Work in groups of 4. The facilitator distributes cards. Each card describes one
leadership model. Read the description and discuss the positive and negative
elements of that model. Do you recognize yourself in that model? Why (not)?
Prepare to present your findings to the whole group.

Online activity 7

Read the leadership model that has been assigned to your group. Please provide at
least 1 positive and 1 negative element of that model. Do you recognize yourself in
that model? Explain why or why not and post your answer in the forum. Afterwards
read the contributions of other colleagues and provide a reply with feedback or
your opinion to at least 1 forum post.

In this section, we discuss some of the most common leadership models (Figure 5).

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Figure 5: Models of school leadership (VVOB, 2017, based on Bush, 2008)

4.1 Managerial school leadership

In managerial school leadership, the focus of school leaders is on managing the

functions, tasks and behaviour of all members in the school. Authority and influence
are based on a hierarchical structure with decision-making based on positional
authority. It is a top-down approach to school leadership. Developing a vision
and goal setting are tasks of the school leader(s) and teachers need to accept and
implement them without question.

Managerial school leadership means (Bush & Glover, 2014):

 A hierarchical structure of authority, clearly identifying the role of each

position.

 A goal orientation, with clear targets set by formal leaders for each position.

 A clear division of labour, with staff having well described tasks and clear
rules.

 Not very personal relationships, based on formal relations, between school

leaders and teachers, among school leaders, among teachers and between
teachers and learners.

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 Accountability to the higher level in the formal hierarchy, rather than to

school-level stakeholders such as parents and learners.

A critique on the managerial leadership model is that it neglects the importance

of a vision and mission for the school. It is also a hierarchical and rigid structure.
Managerial school leadership can lead to managerialism. Hoyle and Wallace (2005,
p. 68) describe managerialism as ‘management to excess’. It means that there is so
much focus on functions, tasks and behaviours, that the aims of education become
less important than the managerial aim of greater efficiency (Hoyle & Wallace, 2005)

Managerial school leadership focuses on the management tasks of a school leader,

whereas the leadership and educational roles of the school leader have the greatest
impact on learning outcomes (Pont et al., 2008). On the other hand, managerial skills
are an important component of school leadership because vision without effective
implementation leads to frustration (Bush, 2015).

4.2 Instructional school leadership

Instructional leadership is based on the idea that the school leader is more than a
manager. They have the responsibility to improve learning outcomes in the school.
Therefore, they should focus on setting school goals, curriculum implementation,
inclusivity, quality of instruction and the school environment. The model is valuable
because it focuses on the role of the school leader to enhance teaching and learning
(Robinson et al., 2008). The instructional leadership model suggests that school
leaders are the most effective of all instructional leaders because they are situated
within the school context, unlike administrators in ministries (Pont et al., 2008).

The model has been criticised because it puts too much focus on the head teacher.
For a head teacher to be a direct instructional leader demands a lot from him/
her. The contribution of other staff, such as deputy head teachers, in instructional
goal setting, oversight of teaching and the development of a positive academic and
learning culture is neglected in this model. It presents a heroic and unrealistic view
of the role of the head teacher that few can achieve (Hallinger, 2005). It is also still a
top-down approach to school leadership.

Nevertheless, instructional leadership is an important part of school leadership.

Robinson and colleagues (2008) point out that leading teaching and learning can
be counterproductive if school leaders do not know what specific pedagogical

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practices are effective in improving teaching and learning. Without good knowledge
of pedagogy and educational research, school leaders risk reinforcing educational
myths, promoting ineffective pedagogical methods and focusing on compliance
rather than promoting active and effective teaching approaches. For example, many
teachers integrate group work or experiments in their lessons, not because of a
conscious decision to help them achieve the lesson objectives, but because their
school leaders want them to do it.

4.3 Transformational school leadership

Transformational leadership has its origins in research on the ability of some school
leaders to inspire teachers to high levels of commitment and moral purpose (Bush,
2017). Researchers argued that this commitment transformed the schools by
developing people’s capacity to work collaboratively to overcome challenges and
reach ambitious goals. It is closely related to Weber’s idea of charismatic leadership
(Tucker, 1968).

This model focuses on individual characteristics of school leaders to inspire and

motivate everyone in the school (focus on intrinsic motivation). The head teacher
develops a vision and inspires and convinces other school leaders and members in
the organisation to pursue activities linked to that vision. Transformational leadership
addresses the critique that a narrow focus on instructional leadership neglects other
dimensions of school leadership. Transformational leadership emphases vision as
the central dimension of leadership. It is individual leadership at its most powerful
(Leithwood, Jantzi, & Steinbach, 1999, p. 9).

Brown (2018) introduces the term daring leadership. Daring leadership has 2
meanings:

 Dare to be a leader. It means that if you are a leader, you should lead and take
responsibility. Especially in times of crisis.

 Be a daring leader. Daring means not taking excessive risks but daring in the
meaning of opening up to people, choosing courage over comfort, showing
empathy and acting to your values. Daring leadership means taking the
responsibility for finding the full potential in people and processes and having
the courage to develop that potential.

This model has also its limits (Bush, 2015). First, transformational leadership may be
used to manipulate or control teachers who are required to support the ‘vision’ and

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goals of the school leader. Second, it lacks the focus on the pedagogical dimension
and the impact of the school leader on optimizing learning processes and outcomes
(Verbiest, 2014). Third, it is a centralized and individualistic model of leadership
( Kelchtermans & Piot, 2013). There is limited scope for others in the school to
contribute to decision-making as the main assumption is that the head teacher can
persuade others of his or her vision. Transformation can be an excuse for imposing
the leader’s values, or for implementing the prescriptions of the government (Hoyle
& Wallace, 2005). Finally, transformational leadership is often rich in symbolism and
theory but weak in practice because many school leaders lack the capacity and the
authority to implement change effectively (Hoyle & Wallace, 2005).

4.4 Moral school leadership

Research on leadership in schools has focused on the task dimension of leadership

–what do leaders need to do in order to make schools effective and functional
(Kelchtermans & Piot, 2013)? In recent years, there has been growing interest in the
emotional dimension of leadership (Kelchtermans et al., 2011). How school leaders
experience their working conditions and their role is very relevant to understand
their actions and attitudes. School leadership is much more than a set of technical
tasks, it continuously involves dealing with emotions and taking moral decisions.
Moral school leadership focuses on the importance of values and integrity in school
leadership.

This model stresses the importance that school leaders practise their values, not
just talk about them. They focus on the skills that underlie these values and use
these skills as starting points for conversations about strengths and opportunities
for growth. The model focuses on skills like empathy, developing trust, curiosity and
care as key skills for school leaders (Brown, 2018).

Research in Uganda about the qualities of successful school leaders, teachers in the
best performing schools referred to their head teachers as friendly, understanding,
patient, considerate, punctual and hardworking (Twaweza, 2019). This positive peer
leadership by head teachers creates a strong moral imperative for teachers to follow
the head teacher’s example and reduces the need for close supervision and frequent
disciplinary actions. This positive energy in the schools spreads into the community
as they feel encouraged to contribute to their schools.

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4.5 Transactional school leadership

Transformational leadership is often contrasted with transactional leadership (Bush

& Glover, 2014). Transactional school leadership states that the relationships
between head teachers, deputy head teachers and teachers are based on exchange
of resources (more focus on external motivation than intrinsic motivation). Teachers
provide educational services (teaching, extracurricular activities) in exchange for
salaries and other rewards. This approach views school leaders and teachers as
employees who “do their job”. Duties and responsibilities are specified in a job
description and clear accountability mechanisms are laid down. The head teacher
gives teachers the authority to complete tasks. Transactional leadership does not
focus on the importance of having a shared vision for the school and it may not lead
to high levels of commitment among staff.

4.6 Participative school leadership

Participative leadership focuses on the role of the school leader in involving others in
the decision-making processes of the school (Leithwood et al., 1999). This model is
based on three arguments:

1. Participation increases school effectiveness, as decisions of higher quality are

made and those involved own the decisions.

2. Participation serves to bond staff together in working towards shared goals.

3. Participation increases the total leadership available in the school.

(Bush & Glover, 2014; Leithwood et al., 1999).

For example, when school leaders involve teachers in developing a vision for the
school, teachers will have a greater commitment to the goals, because of their
ownership of them.

The model assumes that school stakeholders want to take part in decision-making
and that people are more likely to accept and implement decisions in which they
have been involved.

When there are many people involved in decision making, participative leadership
may slow down the process, as inputs and feedback reach the head teacher from all
sides.

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4.7 Distributive school leadership

Distributed leadership has become the preferred school leadership model in the 21st
century. Harris (2013) argues that it is one of the most influential ideas to have
emerged in school leadership. Like participative leadership, it focuses on collective,
rather than individual, leadership. Sometimes, the term teacher leadership is used
(Muijs & Harris, 2003; Timperley et al., 2007)

The difference with participative leadership is that distributed leadership uncouples

leadership from positional authority. Distributed leadership concentrates on engaging
expertise wherever it exists within the organization (Harris, 2013). This means that
not only school leaders are involved in the leadership of the school, but also teachers,
parents and students. Whereas head teachers have the formal authority in schools,
distributed leadership emphasizes informal sources of influence. This does not mean
that the role of the head teacher is reduced. Harris (2013) argues that head teachers
play a big role in creating and nurturing the space for distributed leadership to occur
and that it would be difficult to achieve without their active support. Distributive
leadership relies more on delegation of leadership tasks by head teachers and is
therefore more suitable for well-established groups (see unit one on group dynamics
in Module 3).

Muijs and Harris’s (2007: 961) research in the UK showed that:

‘Teacher leadership was characterised by a variety of formal and informal

groupings, often facilitated by involvement in external programmes. Teacher
leadership was seen to empower teachers and contributed to school
improvement through this empowerment and the spreading of good practice
and initiatives generated by teachers.

Leithwood and Jantzi (2006) found that leadership has a greater influence on
schools and students when it is widely distributed. Schools with the highest student
achievement attributed this to high levels of influence from all sources of leadership,
not just from the head teacher.

“Total leadership accounted for a quite significant 27 per cent variation in

student achievement across schools. This is a much higher proportion of
explained variation (two to three times higher) than is typically reported in
studies of individual head teacher effects” (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2006, p. 12).

Hattie (2012) calls the collective development of teacher expertise one of the most

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significant factors in improving learning outcomes. In other words, distributed

leadership has positive effects on learning achievement compared with individual
leadership approaches.

Muijs & Harris (2003) write that meeting all challenges that schools face nowadays
is impossible unless teachers adopt some of the roles that were previously the role
of school leaders. Therefore, teachers are more and more expected to contribute to
the overall school quality by taking on responsibilities beyond their classroom duties,
such as mentoring, engaging on communities of practice (Struyve, 2017).

So why do not all schools have a distributed leadership structure? The existing
authority structure in schools is often a barrier to the successful introduction of
distributed leadership. In distributed leadership, the power relationship between
followers and leaders becomes blurred (Bush & Glover, 2014). Also, teams need to
develop the competences to take up leadership tasks (Remmerswaal, 2015). The
optimal leadership style depends on the competence level of the group and not all
groups are ready for a distributed leadership approach. Starting leaders sometimes
expect too much from the team (Binon, 2017).

A positive school climate is an essential condition for distributed school leadership.

Harris (2013) argues that good collaboration among teachers is essential and that
teachers need time to meet and work together for collective leadership to develop.
Also, distributive leadership requires a shared vision on where the school needs to
go, a culture of trust and support and structures that support leadership roles by
teachers. Therefore, the role and position of the head teacher and other school
leaders is still very relevant and important!

4.8 Situational school leadership

There is no ideal school leadership model that is best under all circumstances. Each
school leadership model that we discussed has its value. Ideally, school leaders
should use strategies and options from different models. Successful leadership is
multi-dimensional, complex and depends on the context of the school. Strong school
leaders consider the circumstances they are facing and the people with whom they
are working. Therefore, we need school leaders with a large repertoire of practices
and the capacity to choose from that repertoire as needed, not school leaders who
can only apply one “ideal” set of practices. This is particularly important when school
leaders need to lead the school through processes of change.

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The term situational leadership is used to highlight the diverse nature of school
contexts and the need to adapt one’s leadership model to the situation (Figure 6):

“What is important is how leaders respond to the unique organizational

circumstances or problems. There are wide variations in the contexts for
leadership and that, to be effective, these contexts require different leadership
responses” (Leithwood et al., 1999, p. 15).

Figure 6: Situational Leadership (VVOB, 2017 based on Leithwood et al., 1999)

For example, school size can have a strong impact on the applicability of leadership
models. Participative approaches are much easier to adopt in small schools while large
high schools with subject departments may need more elements from managerial
and transactional approaches.

Leadership models are also subject to fashion (Hallinger, 2005). For example,
managerial leadership has been dismissed as limited and too technical, but it is
an essential component of successful leadership, ensuring the implementation of
the school’s vision and strategy. In centralised contexts, it is the most appropriate
way of conceptualising leadership because school leadership’s role often remains

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that of implementing external decisions with little scope for local initiative. This
is the case in many African countries, including Rwanda (Kambanda, 2013). Also
transformational leadership has been praised and later criticised for being too much
focused on the school leader as an individual.

4.9 System school leadership

Finally, school leaders may play a leading role beyond their own school. For example,
outstanding school leaders who, together with the staff in their schools, use their
knowledge and experience to provide additional leadership capacity to schools in
difficulty. Due to the increasing complexity of our societies, school leaders need to
work together more. School leaders can learn a lot from each other instead of each
finding solutions for identical challenges separately. The move towards collaboration
between schools may be the single most significant change for schools in the 21st
century (Coleman 2011, p. 310). Networks or Professional Learning Communities at
the sector and district level can play a key role in developing system school leadership.

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Section 5: Leadership Styles

Activity 8
Thinking about your own style as a school leader and the style of school leaders
that you know, can you describe some different styles of leading a school?

Online activity 8
Think about your own style as a school leader and the style of school leaders that
you know. Describe at least 2 different styles of leading a school that you have
experienced.

Leadership styles refer to the way school leaders interact with their staff. There is a
relation with the leadership models that we discussed in the previous section. Some
leadership styles will fit better in some leadership models. For example, a delegating
style corresponds well with distributive models of leadership, whereas a directing
style is more suitable in instructional or managerial leadership models.

Research also showed that leadership styles should be linked with the skill level that is
present within the team (Remmerswaal, 2015). Teams with low levels of competence
need more direction. This is not to keep them at a low level, but to develop them.
Also, newly formed groups need more structure. When you engage with new groups
in very distributive way, it may create a lot of tensions. The same may happen when
a new school leader applies a very authoritative style with an autonomous group,
a group that has been working together for a long time. In working with a group,
the leadership style should evolve from highly to less directive and from high to low
levels of support (see Figure 7).

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Figure 7: Leadership Styles (Remmerswaal, 2015)

S= Style. D= Development

Remmerswaal (2015) distinguishes four leadership styles (Figure 7):

(S1) and (D1): Directing: At this level, people do not have much knowledge of
the task. They still have to learn the skills needed to be proficient at the task
and so they need clear directions and guidance. The development and skill
level of the followers is low. They need to be told how to do something and
what to do. At this level, there is not much focus on developing (supporting)
the skills of the followers.

(S2) and (D2): Coaching: during this stage, team members still need a lot
of direction from the leader, but he/she now begins to explain ideas and

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the reasons for such. This helps the members to develop their skills and
reasoning. With this style, leaders begin to explain their message to influence
and develop the team. At this stage, there is still a lot of direction, but also a
lot of support.

(S3) and (D3): Supporting: At this level of development, the leader adjusts
his/her style to focus more on relationships and less on the task. He/ She
allows the team(s) to create their goals but works with them to do this. As
the team is competent with the task, the aim becomes to further develop the
team to act and to think more autonomously and give them greater scope for
self-leadership.

(S4) and (D4): Delegating: The team is well functioning and is highly competent
with the task at hand. The leader now delegates goal creation and decision
making to the team and as such, they competently get on with the task:
setting goals, creating plans and executing them autonomously. The leader
focuses on monitoring progress and evaluating the result of the task.

Activity 9
With reference to your roles and responsibilities as a school leader, provide
a specific example for each style where, why, and how you use a delegative, a
directing, a supporting, and a coaching style in your school. Draw a table of four
columns (Style, where, why, how) and five rows (Titles, 4 styles) to structure your
answer.

Online activity 9
Using the template provided, give a specific example for each style: where, why,
and how you use a delegative, a directing, a supporting, and a coaching style in
your school. Next, you will receive the work of one of your peers. Read the work
and provide constructive feedback.

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Section 6: Professional Standards for School Leaders in

Rwanda
6.1 Background and underlying principles

Professional standards describe the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that
a professional must demonstrate as they do their work. The standards reflect a
commitment to ensure that all students have access to quality learning and that
all schools are administered, managed and led by competent professionals. The
standards serve as a guideline for good practice in school leadership. They help school
leaders to know what is expected from them and so they can make the necessary
efforts to perform to the expectations laid out in the standards. These standards are
also a useful instrument when designing systems of accountability, monitoring and
evaluation. Table 3 describes the standards for effective school leadership and Table
4 describes the roles and responsibilities for school leaders per standard.

The standards are based upon the following principles (SLMU, 2017):

 The standards reflect the importance and centrality of student learning and
well-being.

 The standards cover broad areas of a head teacher’s work rather than micro-
level competences.

 The standards describe a practice that are valid no matter where the school is,
its size or socio-economic status.

 The standards are explicit in their expectation but are not prescriptive in terms
of methodology acknowledging that good head teachers can achieve the same
outcomes using different methodologies.

 The standards highlight areas that are measurable and observable.

The five standards for effective school leadership are based on international research.
(Day & Leithwood, 2007) identified eight dimensions of successful leadership.

Successful leaders:

1. define their values and vision to raise expectations, set direction and build trust;

2. reshape the conditions for teaching and learning;

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3. restructure parts of the organization and redesign leadership roles and

responsibilities;

4. enrich the curriculum;

5. enhance teacher quality;

6. enhance the quality of teaching and learning;

7. build collaboration internally;

8. build strong relationships outside the school community.

In Figure 8, the inner circle represents the core focus of leaders’ attention, the middle
ring their core strategies, and the outer ring the actions they take in support of these
strategies. Building trust and defining a vision, values and direction for the school are
necessary conditions for each of the actions in the outer ring.

Figure 8: Eight dimensions of successful school leadership (Day & Leithwood, 2007, adapted by VVOB)

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6.2 Professional standards for school leaders

REB is in the process of approving professional standards for school leaders, which,
together will describe the roles and responsibilities of school leaders in Rwanda
(Figure 9). Although knowledge and skills are assigned to each of the five standards,
they are all related to each other.

Activity 10
Work in groups of 4. You will receive a card with the description of one standard.
Read the description and the roles and responsibilities for the standard given to
you. Translate the standard to your context. What does the standard mean for
your school? What are you already doing and is going well with relation to the
standard? What is the role of the head teacher and the deputy head teacher for
this standard? What do you expect from this programme to improve upon still
in your school? Write your thoughts on a flip chart and prepare to present and
discuss with the whole group.

Online activity 10
For this activity, you will work together as a group. Within your group, assign one
group leader who will post the answers to the questions in the forum. Arrange for
a time and date to discuss the questions. Please read the description as well as
the roles and responsibilities of the standard assigned to your group. Now respond
by translating the standard to your professional context. You can use the following
guiding questions to formulate an answer: What does the standard mean for
your school? What are you already doing and is going well with relation to the
standard? What is the role of the head teacher and the deputy head teacher for
this standard? What do you expect from this programme to improve upon still in
your school? After agreeing on the answers, the group leader will post them in
the forum. Afterwards, read the responses of your colleagues in other groups and
provide a reply with feedback to at least 1 post.

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Figure 9: Professional Standards of School Leadership (REB, 2018)

Table 3: Professional standards for school leadership (REB, 2018)

STANDARDS FOR EFFECTIVE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

STANDARD 1: Building a vision and mission for the school community

CREATING is a fundamental responsibility of school leaders to build
STRATEGIC trust, to inspire and motivate students and staff. This vision
DIRECTION FOR THE should express the core educational values of the school.
SCHOOL

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STANDARD 2: The role of school leaders is to ensure that all students learn.
LEADING LEARNING This implies setting high expectations for all students and
staff members. Creating a constructive and safe learning
environment and culture is an essential aspect of the role
of the school leader.

STANDARD 3: To ensure that all students learn effectively, teaching must

LEADING TEACHING be of the highest possible standard. The school leader
must create the environment, conditions and structures to
support this.

STANDARD 4: School leaders need to ensure that the school’s structures,

MANAGEMENT OF policies, people and resources are organized and managed
THE SCHOOL AS AN in such a way that they contribute to an effective and safe
ORGANIZATION learning environment.

STANDARD 5: Improvements in the school and in the wider community

WORKING WITH are interdependent. School leaders should commit to
PARENTS AND THE engaging with parents and the wider community to raise
WIDER COMMUNITY expectations and improve student outcomes and well-
being.

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Table 4: Roles and Responsibilities of school leaders per standard (REB, 2018)

STANDARDS ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF SCHOOL LEADERS

STANDARD 1: - Develop a vision, mission and values for the school

CREATING which is clear, shared and widely understood and
STRATEGIC which takes a range of views into account.
DIRECTION FOR THE - Translate the vision, mission and core values for the
SCHOOL school into a strategic plan with clear objectives and
high expectations for all.
- Lead by example by practising the values of the school.
- Create a school climate that is motivating and inspiring
and a culture that encourages innovation, creativity
and collaboration among staff

STANDARD 2: - Set individual, group and school targets related to

LEADING LEARNING student learning
- Monitor, analyse and review data related to student
learning
- Create a positive, safe and conducive learning
environment
- Ensure that there is a continuous, school wide focus
on students’ achievement.
- Ensure that evaluation and assessment of students
are well organized and conducted.
- Promote excellence, equity and high expectations for
all students.

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STANDARDS ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF SCHOOL LEADERS

STANDARD 3: - Ensure that all teachers share a common understanding

LEADING TEACHING of quality teaching and the role of a teacher within the
school.
- Establish structures and systems to support teaching
and learning such as CoPs,
- Monitor and review classroom practice and promote
improvement strategies
- Ensure arrangements for performance management
are in place to hold teachers to account for their
students’ learning.
- Devote sufficient time to observe teaching and learning
activities and engage in constructive conversations
with teachers on teaching and learning
- Develop a programme of continuous professional
development
- Stimulate collaboration among staff.
- Supervise an induction programme for new staff

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STANDARDS ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF SCHOOL LEADERS

STANDARD 4: - Coordinate the development and implementation of

MANAGEMENT OF clear improvement plans and policies
THE SCHOOL AS AN - Manage the school resources efficiently and effectively
ORGANIZATION in a way that promotes student learning
- Ensure that providing equitable learning opportunities
is at the centre of strategic planning and resource
management
- Monitor, evaluate and review the systems, policies
and structures and the effect of these on student
outcomes
- Make regular inspections of the school to ensure
that school premises and equipment are being used
properly
- Create a sense of ownership and involvement in the
school with all staff by involving them in decision
making.
- Manage and organize the school environment
effectively and efficiently to ensure that it meets the
needs of the curriculum, health and safety regulations
- Manage the school’s financial and human resources
effectively and efficiently to achieve the school’s
education goals and priorities.
- Assign tasks and delegate duties.
- Promote income generating activities for the school.
- Organize recruitment of support staff and ensure their
contracts are signed.
- Promote and implement strategies for motivating staff
and students.

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STANDARDS ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF SCHOOL LEADERS

STANDARD 5: - Create and maintain effective and representative

WORKING WITH partnerships with parents including communicating
PARENTS AND THE effectively about student performance and welfare.
WIDER COMMUNITY - Partner, where appropriate, with NGOs, agencies,
businesses or other organisations to support teaching
and learning
- Serve as a link between school and different
stakeholders
- Establish partnerships and share practices with other
schools
- Ensure the school plays a productive role as a member
of its wider community.
- Work with parents and the wider community to make
the school more inclusive.

Activity 11
In Appendix 2, you find a self-assessment tool for the 5 standards of effective school
leadership. This tool is for learning purposes only and is not officially approved by
REB.

Complete this self-evaluation about your knowledge and skills of each standard
and calculate your score. For each standard, identify one personal priority that you
want to improve upon during this programme.

This self-orientation is intended to help you identify areas for improvement. It is

not an evaluation of your work or your leadership competences. You do not need
to hand in your self-evaluation to the facilitator. You will keep the self-assessment
as part of your e-portfolio. At the end of this programme, you will evaluate your
progress on the identified priorities.

Online activity 11
Complete the self-evaluation tool available on moodle about your knowledge and
skills of each standard and calculate your score. For each standard, identify one
personal priority that you want to improve upon during this programme.

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UNIT TWO

GENDER AND INCLUSIVENESS IN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

Introduction

Activity 12
Discuss the following entry questions in pairs:
 Are there any barriers that hinder education for all learners in Rwanda?
Explain your answer.

 What do you do in your school to make sure that all learners can learn to
the best of their abilities?

Online activity 12
Reflect on the following questions:
 Are there any barriers that hinder education for all learners in Rwanda?
Explain your answer.
 What do you do in your school to make sure that all learners can learn to
the best of their abilities?

In Rwanda, gender equality has been incorporated in the Constitution. Rwanda has
adopted a National Gender Policy (Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, 2010)
and a Plan of Action to ensure effective gender mainstreaming and full participation
of men and women in all activities related to nation’s socio-economic development.
The National Institute of Statistics (NISR) and the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO)
have established a Gender Statistics Framework (GSF) for Rwanda which includes the
annual publication of a National Gender Statistics Report. The most recent report can
be downloaded at http://statistics.gov.rw/publication/gender-statistics-public-sector-rwanda.

The Government of Rwanda places a high priority on gender equality. In the 2013
parliamentary elections, 64% of the elected leaders were female. On the Gender
Development Index (GDI), Rwanda scored 0.992, placing it in the top group of countries

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in 2015 (UNDP, 2017). However, important challenges remain at the household, school
and societal level. Rwandan society is characterised by a patriarchal social structure
that underlies the unequal social power relations between men and women, boys
and girls. This has translated into men’s dominance and women’s subordination.
Intensive campaigns and advocacy by Rwandan civil society are making progress in
changing the patriarchal mindset.

Despite great progress, there are still barriers to achieve gender equality for all
Rwandan children. Half of all girls and six out of ten boys in Rwanda experience
violence during their childhoods (UNICEF & MINEDUC, 2017). Violence in childhood
leads to mental distress, early pregnancy and sexual risk-taking, and is a contributing
cause of violence later in life. Boys who are subjected to harsh physical punishment,
who are physically abused themselves, or who witness their mothers being beaten
are more likely to abuse their partners later in life. Within the education sector,
school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) remains a challenge, contributing
to high repetition and dropout rates (UNICEF & MINEDUC, 2017). In the recently
published LARS 3 (Learning Achievements in Rwandan Schools) results, boys
significantly outperform girls both in numeracy and literacy.

In this unit, we will introduce key terms related to gender and inclusive education,
discuss the status of gender equality in Rwanda and discuss your role as a school
leader in promoting gender and inclusive education.

Activity 13
Form 2 concentric circles according to the guidelines of your trainer. With your
partner in front of you, you briefly discuss each question below. Under the
guidance of the facilitator, you regularly change your position, so that you discuss
each question with different people.
 In what ways do you think education in Rwanda is doing well in terms of
gender?
 In what ways do you think gender in education can be improved in Rwanda?
 What are the effects of gender discrimination in the school and classroom?
 What are you doing in your school to promote gender equity?
 What can you do more in your school to ensure gender equity?

Activity not available online.

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Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit, participants should be able to:
 Understand the importance of inclusiveness and gender in school leadership;
 Explain key terms related to gender and inclusive education;
 Devise ways how involving parents and local communities can contribute to
inclusive and gender responsive education.
 Demonstrate equity and inclusiveness in school leadership;
 Actively address gender stereotyping and gender blindness within their
schools;
 Value the importance of gender equity and inclusive education.

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Section 1: Key Terms

Many terms related to gender are used in different contexts. This section clairifes
some of them.

Sex refers to the biologically determined characteristics for males and females. It
is a biological term referring to people and animals as being either female or male
depending on their genes and is therefore generally unchanging and universal. Sex
also refers to biologically determined differences between individuals that make them
male or female. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, attitudes, behaviour,
activities and attributes that society considers appropriate for men and women.
The allocated roles and prevalence of attitudes and values vary per culture, class,
age, ethnicity and time. Gender is a socially constructed perception about the roles
that men and women play in a culture or community. Gender also involves issues
of power in terms of who takes decisions and who owns resources at household,
community and society level (Subrahmanian, 2005).

Activity 14
Based on the picture below (Figure 10), discuss the difference is between gender
equality and gender equity? How does this relate to the education system in
Rwanda?

Online activity 14
Please reply to the following questions in the forum:
How does gender equality and gender equity relate to the education system in
Rwanda?
Afterwards read the contributions of colleagues and provide a reply with feedback
or your opinion to at least 1 forum post.

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Figure 10: Gender equality and gender equity (Save the Children, Mureke Dusome project, 2017)

Gender equality refers to a situation where both girls and boys are equally
represented in numbers in classes, schools or jobs (Subrahmanian, 2005). Equality
is about treating everyone the same. Rwanda has taken major steps in ensuring
gender equality in education enrolment. However, gender inequalities persist at the
level of participation and performance and this calls for a clear understanding of the
underlying gender issues.

Gender parity is a 50:50 ratio of males and females accessing education. Gender
parity is about equality in terms of numbers and proportions of women and men,
girls and boys. Analysing gender parity in education means a comparison of female
and male learners’ level of access to education at each level of education (Colclough,
2007). Rwanda has achieved gender parity in primary school enrolment as one of
the few African counties.

Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and men (Subrahmanian,
2005). Gender equity calls for those who are in disadvantaged positions to have fair
share of the benefits. This means giving to those who have less based on needs
and introducing special measures and interventions to compensate for the historical
and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from operating on a level
playing field (Figure 10). Gender equity is about fairness and giving all learners the
opportunities to succeed. It does not mean equality of outcomes.

Gender awareness means that teachers, civil servants and policy makers are
informed about challenges concerning gender and education in Rwanda. Lack of
gender awareness may lead to cases of gender stereotyping. However, shifts in
gender equality require not only awareness and behaviour change, but also changes
in the fundamental power dynamics that define gender norms and relationships
(UNICEF, 2017).

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Gender stereotypes are simplistic generalizations about differences between males

and females. Gender stereotyping is related to gender blindness. Gender stereotypes
assign roles to males and females based on their sex, rather than their competences
or preferences. For example, maths is for boys and nursery is for girls (Zuze & Lee,
2007).

Gender blindness is about failing to see how it is gender and not innate (born)
differences that create differences between males and females in our society
(UNICEF, 2017). For example, a gender-blind teacher may see no problem with
learner’s leadership without fair gender representation. Being blind to gender and
equity means that you’re not sensitive to it and that you ignore possible barriers to
learning with your learners.

Gender sensitivity is the opposite of gender blindness. It is the ability to recognize

gender issues, men’s and women’s different perceptions and interests arising
from their respective social roles. It means being able to talk about gender and
inclusiveness in your school and address the challenges.

Gender mainstreaming in school leadership refers to considering gender issues in all

school activities. It involves making gender an integral part of the planning, design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes within the school (UNICEF,
2017).

Gender responsiveness refers to taking action to correct gender bias and

discrimination so as to ensure gender equality and equity (Mlama, 2005).

Gender-based violence refers to acts of violence inflicted on women because

of their gender and sexuality. It includes physical violence in the form of corporal
punishment, psychological violence such as verbal abuse, and sexual violence ranging
from unwanted sexual talk and indecent touch to rape.

Activity 15
Watch the video below on the use of the expression “Like a girl”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
Does the video ring true to you? Can you give examples from the Rwandan context?

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Online activity 15
Watch the video below on the use of the expression “Like a girl”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
Please reply to the following questions in the forum:
Does the video ring true to you? Can you give examples from the Rwandan context?
Afterwards read the contributions of colleagues and provide a reply with feedback
or your opinion to at least 1 forum post.

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Section 2: Status of Gender Equality in Rwandan

Education

In this section, we will discuss how the Rwandan education system is doing in terms
of gender equality. Table 5 shows some key gender-disaggregated (data for males
and females) education indicators and Table 6 shows some indicators about the
girls’ education. Appendix 1 contains definitions for the main indicators in the table.

Table 5: Selected gender-disaggregated education indicators

Percentage Percentage
Indicator Source
of Female of Male
Gross Intake Rate in P1 in
142.8 133.7 2018 Education Statistics
2018
Net Intake Rate in P1 in
78.1 81.9 2018 Education Statistics
2018
Gross Intake Rate in P6 in
89.6 76.1 2018 Education Statistics
2018 (completion rate)1
Net Intake Rate in P6 in
25.1 19.4 2018 Education Statistics
2018 (completion rate)
Gross Intake Rate in S1 in
62.2 53 2018 Education Statistics
2018
Net Intake Rate in S1 in
15.8 12.3 2018 Education Statistics
2018

Gross Intake Rate in S6 in

26 25 2018 Education Statistics
2018 (completion rate)

Net Intake Rate in S6 in

10.3 8.9 2018 Education Statistics
2018 (completion rate)
Transition rate from
Primary to Lower
71.0 72.3 2018 Education Statistics
Secondary Education (P6
To S1)
Transition rate from lower
to upper secondary in 82.5 88.7 2018 Education Statistics
2018

1
The Gross Intake Rate (GIR) in Primary 6 was previously called Completion Rate but with the implementation
of SDG4 the terminology was changed (Rwanda Education Statistics 2017, https://mineduc.gov.rw/fileadmin/
user_upload/pdf_files/Rwanda_Education_Statistics_2017.pdf)

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Pupils in primary schools

49.7 50.3 2018 Education Statistics
in 2018

Secondary school students

53.2 46.8 2018 Education Statistics
in 2018

Students enrolled in
STEM in upper secondary 45.6 54.4 2018 Education Statistics
education (2018)
Trainees in TVET
43.8 56.2 2018 Education Statistics
institutions in 2018
Students in tertiary
institutions (%of male/ 42.7 57.3 2018 Education Statistics
female) in 2018
Gross Enrolment ratio in
136.1 139 2018 Education Statistics
primary education (2018)
Net Enrolment Ratio in
98.5 98 2018 Education Statistics
primary education in 2018
Gross Enrolment ratio
in secondary education 41.7 37.5 2018 Education Statistics
(2018)
Net Enrolment Ratio in
secondary education 28.2 32.1 2018 Education Statistics
(2018)

Gross Enrolment ratio in

6.5 9.1 2018 Education Statistics
tertiary education (2018)

Percentage of teaching
staff for primary education 54.9 45.1 2018 Education Statistics
(2018)

Percentage of teaching
staff for secondary 28.1 71.9 2018 Education Statistics
education (2018)
Percentage of TVET staff
26.5 73.5 2018 Education Statistics
(2018)

Percentage of academic
staff in tertiary education 18.6 81.4 2018 Education Statistics
(2018)
Promotion rate in primary
81.3 78.6 2018 Education Statistics
education (2018)

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Repetition rate in Primary

12.4 14.4 2018 Education Statistics
Education (2018)

Dropout rate in Primary

6.3 7 2018 Education Statistics
Education (2018)
Promotion rate in
secondary education 89.1 89.4 2018 Education Statistics
(2018)
Repetition rate in
4.8 5.3 2018 Education Statistics
Secondary Education

Dropout rate in Secondary

6.1 5.4 2018 Education Statistics
Education (2018)
sources: MINEDUC, 2018; National Institute of Statistics in Rwanda, Ministry of Finance and Economic
Planning, & Ministry of Health, 2016

Table 6: Selected indicators on the participation of females in education

Percentage of women age 15-19 years

old who have begun childbearing 12.7 NISR: DHS 2014-15
without Education

Percentage of women age 15-19 years

old who have begun childbearing with 9.2 NISR: DHS 2014-15
primary education

Percentage of women age 15-19 years

old who have begun childbearing with 4.3 NISR: DHS 2014-15
Secondary or higher education level.
Sources: MINEDUC, 2018; National Institute of Statistics in Rwanda, Ministry of Finance and Economic
Planning, & Ministry of Health, 2016

Discussion of gender statistics

Some key findings from the overview of gender-disaggregated education statistics
are:
• GIR for Primary 6 have increased considerably between 2016 and 2018 (from
71.1% in 2016 to 89.6% in 2018 for females and from 59.3% in 2016 to 76.1% in
2018 for males), showing that more children finish primary education. Rates are
higher for girls than for boys.

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• NIRs remain much lower than GIRs, meaning that there are many over-aged and
under-aged children in the education system due to repetition and temporary
dropping out. To achieve the universal target of 100% GER, more strategies
and plans should be elaborated to ensure the smooth transition of students to
secondary level (so that over-aged children do not remain in primary). Moreover,
a recommendation is that parents should be sensitized to send their children on
time to the Nursery level. This would enable children to be school-ready to join
the primary level at the appropriate age.

• Transition rates for primary to secondary education are lower than those from
lower secondary to upper secondary education. This means that the transition
from primary to secondary education remains the main barrier for learners,
where most drop-outs take place. Transition rates are slightly higher for boys
than for girls.

• Dropout rates for boys and girls are slightly different in primary and secondary
education. However, they are higher for boys than girls in primary while it is the
opposite in secondary. It is to note that dropout for younger boys tends to disrupt
their education and contributes to over-ageing, whereas dropout for girls more
often represents the end point in their education (UNICEF & MINEDUC, 2017).

• Despite recent declines, repetition remains a major issue in Rwanda’s education

system. By Primary 6, 85% of children in the education system have repeated
at least once (UNICEF & MINEDUC, 2017). A key characteristic of Rwandan
classrooms in primary and secondary school is high variation in ages within
grades. High age‐variation within grades inevitably affects class dynamics and
the quality of teaching and learning. At primary school level, girls are less likely
to repeat than boys. The situation reverses in secondary education.

• GER in secondary and tertiary education are much lower than for primary
education. Strong differences between gross and net rates point to many
learners that are not at the right level according to their age level, due to
late entry, temporary drop-out or repetition. Enrolment and intake rates at
secondary level are gender balanced, but at tertiary level, there are still more
males than females who enrol.

• Data on the percentage of women age 15-19 years old who have begun
childbearing according to their education level show that the higher their level
of education, the lower the number who have begun childbearing in their teens.

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Activity 16
Read the information in the box bellow about the impact of COVID-19 on adolescent
Girls and Interventions to Protect and Empower them. Reflect on the following
questions:
- Do you have gender related challenges caused by COVID-19 in your school?
- What are those challenges?
- What are you doing to address them?
Afterwards, discuss your answers with your neighbour. Be ready to share the ideas
of your pair with the whole group.

Online Activity 16
Read the information in the box bellow about the impact of COVID-19 on adolescent
Girls and Interventions to Protect and Empower them. Reply to the following
questions in the forum:
- Do you have gender related challenges caused by COVID-19 in your school?
- What are those challenges?
- What are you doing to address them?
Afterwards read the contributions of colleagues and provide a reply with feedback
or your opinion to at least 1 forum post.

The impact of COVID-19 on Adolescent Girls

Box: The impact of COVID-19 on Adolescent Girls and Interventions to Protect
and Empower them (UNICEF and IRC, 2020)

Early evidence indicates that COVID-19 has resulted in a sharp increase in

reported incidents of GBV (Smith, 2019) . This is a similar pattern from previous
epidemics such as Ebola and SARS. Girls are particularly vulnerable. Studies
of past disease outbreaks have shown that without targeted intervention,
COVID-19 will heighten pre-existing risks of GBV against girls, block their social,
economic and educational development and threaten their sexual reproductive
health (Peterman et al., 2020).

The impact on adolescent girls is various (UNICEF and IRC, 2020):

 Higher risk of sexual exploitation and abuse. There is evidence that
economic insecurity can lead to sharp rises in intimate partner violence and
exposure of adolescent girls to sexual

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 exploitation, harassment and other types of gender-based violence

(Peterman et al., 2020). Covid-19 created economic hardship for populations that
were already highly economically insecure. These bad economic conditions in
turn, provided many opportunities for perpetrators to exploit adolescent girls’
need to attain basic necessities to survive.

 Risk of quarantine measures increasing exposure to abusers at home. GBV

specialists are drawing attention to a ‘shadow pandemic’ of violence against
women and girls (Peterman et al., 2020). Adolescent girls will also be expected
to support their female caregivers in not only managing the usual household
duties of cooking, cleaning, obtaining water and firewood, but also taking care
of sick family members, including those who cannot access formal healthcare
duties. This will not only increase their unpaid care labour, but also increase
their exposure to the virus (CARE & IRC, 2020).

 Poor education outcomes. UNESCO estimates 1.54 billion children and

youth - including 111 million girls living in low income settings – were out
of school because of COVID-19 school closures. School closures due to the
COVID19 pandemic could lead to millions more girls dropping out before they
complete their education, especially girls living in poverty, with a disability or
living in rural isolated places.

 Risk of early/forced marriage and very early pregnancy. The pandemic

risks not only reversing progress made in increasing girls equitable access to
education, but may also lead to increased incidents of pregnancy and early/
forced marriage. Pregnant girls and adolescent mothers often do not to go
back to school due to stigma, childcare, economic considerations and the
status of laws, policies, and practices that block their access to education.

 Increase in sexual reproductive health risks. Evidence from past epidemics

indicates healthcare resources directed at women and girls are at risk of being
diverted towards addressing the pandemic.

 Unequal access to information. Many support services, education and

general information on the virus are being delivered through remote/phone
and virtual modalities. While mobile phone ownership and access has increased
globally, women are still less likely than men to own a phone and it is estimated
that there are 443 million “unconnected” adult women in the world (CARE &
IRC, 2020).

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Some ways to address these challenges:

 Keeping safe spaces for women and girls open and accessible. Such spaces
can be used as a key entry point and service point for continuity of care for
women and girls, including sexual reproductive health services, when health
services become overburdened.

 Facilitate access to information. Given the digital divide for adolescent

girls, messaging for girls must be available through other avenues and must
also take into consideration language, literacy, ability and limited movement
(door-to-door delivery, information sessions in small groups in outdoor areas,
radio messaging).

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Section 3: Gender in Schools

The gender inequities that exist in society have an impact in schools. This is reflected in
school processes such as teaching, teacher–student interaction, school management,
and the planning and design of the physical infrastructure (Figure 11). Teaching and
learning materials, for example, may contain gender stereotypes. Teachers are not
always aware of the gender specific needs of both girls and boys. School management
systems may not sufficiently address gender constraints such as sexual harassment,
and many schools do not have adequate or separate toilets for girls and boys. As
a result, the schools do not provide a gender responsive environment for effective
teaching and learning to take place.

Activity 17
Reflect on the gender situation in your school and identify gender inequities with
respect to the following aspects:
 Number of teaching and non-teaching staff (males and females)
 Number of students (boys and girls)
 Learning outcomes between boys and girls in arts and science subjects
 Leadership roles (student leaders, heads of department, subject leaders)
 Infrastructure (toilets, dorms, girls’ rooms, ICT use etc.)
What do you think are the causes of the inequities identified above?
As a school leader, what are you doing/can you do to address these inequities?

Online activity 17
In your respective groups, reflect on the gender situation in your schools and
identify gender inequities with respect to the following aspects:
• Number of teaching and non-teaching staff (males and females)
• Number of students (boys and girls)
• Learning outcomes between boys and girls in arts and science subjects
• Leadership roles (student leaders, heads of department, subject leaders)
• Infrastructure (toilets, dorms, girls’ rooms, ICT use etc.)
Please reply to the following questions in the forum:
• What do you think are the causes of the inequities identified above? (provide
2 causes)
• As a school leader, what are you doing/can you do to address these inequities?
Afterwards read the contributions of other groups and provide a reply with
feedback or your opinion to at least 1 forum post.

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Figure 11: Gender Bottlenecks, barriers, options and opportunities in Education (UNICEF, 2017)

A gender responsive school is one in which the academic, social and physical
environment and its surrounding community consider the specific needs of both girls
and boys. This implies that teachers, parents, community leaders and members and
learners are all aware of and practice gender equality. It also assumes that school
management systems, policies and practices recognize and address the gender- or
sex-based needs of both girls and boys. In addition, in a gender responsive school
the academic delivery, including teaching methodologies, teaching and learning
materials, classroom interaction, and management of academic processes, is gender
responsive. Both male and female students are empowered to practice gender
equality and to protect the rights of all learners. Gender responsiveness includes the
physical environment in the school – including buildings, furniture and equipment.

Schools play a powerful role in constructing male and female identities (Aikman &
Underhalter, 2007). They influence how boys and girls see themselves and each
other. Schools are places of intense interaction where both the formal and informal
curriculum shape learners’ understanding of gender. Daily attitudes and beliefs about
gender are brought into the classroom and influence what is taught and how content
is taught. Teachers, school leaders and learners construct gender through their daily
interactions and relationships. Below are some of the stereotypes that may be held
by teachers and head teachers about boys and girls.

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Activity 18

Discuss the stereotypes and gender equity challenges listed below. Which of them
do you recognize in your school? Do you know any other? What are you doing to
address them?

Online activity 18

Look at the stereotypes and gender equity challenges listed below.

Tick the boxes of the gender equity challenges you recognize in your school.
Please indicate also what you are doing to address them in the text box provided.

Research into stakeholder views of school leadership in primary schools in Rwanda

revealed that the third greatest challenge identified by learners was that learners
(boys and girls) are not treated equitably. Children in 44% of the surveyed sample of
schools confirmed this. 22% of the focus groups said this bothered them a lot; in the
case of P5 female pupils, this figure was 29% (Building Learning Foundations (BLF)
Programme, 2019).

Table 7: Gender stereotypes in schools

Boys Girls

• Speak softly
• Are loud and clear in speech
• Are shy and cannot express
• Are not shy
themselves well
• Are assertive
• Accept whatever is decided
• Are energetic
• Have no physical energy

Here are some examples of gender equity challenges in East African schools (Zuze
and Lee, 2007; Mlama, 2005):

 Young girls who drop out of school to take care of their young siblings;

 Young girls who drop out of school to become nannies;

 Young girls who are not allowed to participate in school clubs like their

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brothers because of being busy with domestic chores;

 Young girls who are absent from the school because there are no hygienic
facilities;

 Girls being involved in sweeping while boys are playing or reading story books;

 Boys who drop out of school to do child labour such as making bricks, mining,
keeping animals etc.

 Social norms that boys are better at maths and science than girls;

 Girls are viewed as temporary residents in the parental home so returns on

education will be enjoyed by the husband’s family;

 Different treatment of boys and girls in the classroom (See section 4).

Activity 19

Read the two case studies below. Discuss whether such clubs would be useful
in your school.

Case study 1: Saving Clubs in GS Bubazi in Kamonyi District

Thirteen groups of learners from S1 to S3, eight groups for girls and five for
boys, are members of a saving club. Each group is under the guidance of a men-
tor teacher of the same sex.
Every Monday learners save from 50 to 250 Rwandan Francs. At the end of the
year, learners can use the saved money to invest it in productive means, such
as buying a chicken. They can also use the funds to buy school materials. If
necessary, learners can also opt to borrow money, at an interest. Every month,
learners come together with their mentor to discuss issues related to social and
economic affairs. For example, both girls and boys learn about sexual develop-
ment and reproduction.

Learners say that the saving clubs help them to be self-supportive and to ac-
knowledge the value of money. Teachers report that the clubs have created
a more trusting and friendly relationship between teachers and learners. The
saving club has had a positive impact for example, school leaders also report a

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lower dropout rate in the school as a result of the programme and the estab-
lishment of a girls’ room.
The project is regularly evaluated by school leaders, teachers, parents and
learners during scorecard meetings. During these meetings, successes and
challenges are shared and possible solutions are discussed.

Case study 2: Entrepreneurship Club at GS Aspeka in Kamonyi District

Under the guidance of the entrepreneurship teacher, learners in S4 to S6, have

set up a mixed entrepreneurship club. In the club, they save a weekly sum of
minimum 500 Rwandan Francs. The savings are used to invest in materials
needed to set up a local business. For example, the current cohort of learn-
ers has decided to create a business to make brochette skewers from bamboo.
They have assigned one teacher to sell the skewers on the market. Last year,
the club’s activities turned a profit of 1 million Rwandan Francs.
The purpose of the club is to help learners find employment after they gradu-
ate. After graduation, they are encouraged to continue the business togeth-
er. In the club, learners also develop other skills, such as debating and public
speaking, learn about reproductive issues and question traditional beliefs.
Girls who are members of the Club report that the clubs have helped them to
understand that boys and girls have the same abilities and that they can invest
and make a profit as well.

Online activity 19

Watch the videos related to the two case studies. Discuss in the forum whether
such clubs would be useful in your school.

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Section 4: Gender in Classrooms

Activity 20

Discuss following questions briefly with the whole group:

 What do you understand by gender responsive pedagogy?
 Give examples of how gender responsive pedagogy is implemented in your
school.
 Which aspects of gender responsive pedagogy do you focus on during
classroom observations?

Online Activity 20

Reflect on the following questions :

 What do you understand by gender responsive pedagogy?
 Give examples of how gender responsive pedagogy is implemented in your
school.
 Which aspects of gender responsive pedagogy do you focus on during
classroom observations?

Observations of classroom practices show that teaching and learning is often gender
biased (Consuegra, 2015). Many teachers apply teaching methodologies that do
not give girls and boys equal opportunities to participate, and often this happens
unconsciously (Consuegra, 2015). They also use teaching and learning materials that
reinforce gender stereotypes. Therefore, there is an urgent need to introduce gender
responsive pedagogy.

Gender responsive pedagogy refers to teaching and learning processes that pay
attention to the specific learning needs of girls and boys (Mlama, 2005). Gender
responsive pedagogy calls for teachers to take an integrated gender approach in
the processes of lesson planning, teaching, class management and performance
evaluation. As a school leader, it is important that you can make teachers aware of
gender responsive pedagogy and help them to become more sensitive to gender
stereotypes in the classroom.

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For example, in many schools, classroom roles are allocated per learner’s sex. This
practice reinforces certain social values which reflect gender stereotyping. Table 8
indicates some roles that are often assigned to boys and girls.

Table 8: Typical Role Distributions in classrooms and schools

Boys Girls

Lead a team
Acts as secretary to discussions in a group
Head prefect
Assistant Class prefect
Spokesperson
Peel potatoes and bananas
Play football
Play netball
Run marathon
Fetch water
Lift weights
Clean the blackboard
Practice boxing

In girls’ schools, roles are often assigned depending on the perception of the teacher
as to how the girls correspond to boys in terms of:
 Physical structure (appearance, body form, height, weight, strength)
 Intelligence (class performance)

Strong and intelligent girls are likened to boys and their performance is compared
to that of boys, often in a positive light. For example, Umutoni runs as fast as a boy,
Kayitesi is as intelligent as Rurangwa. These practices reinforce the perception that
only boys can do better and therefore girls can only play the role of followers or
copycats.

Teachers and school leaders can reinforce gender stereotypes in many ways during
teaching and learning:
 Asking more difficult questions to boys;
 Asking more questions to boys;
 Using references to appearance and physical gender attributes.

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 Assigning classroom or school tasks based on traditional gender patterns. For

example, asking boys only to move chairs or desks and girls to clean.
 Have higher expectations for boys than for girls
 Giving more opportunities to boys to solve problems at the blackboard
 Believing that boys are more able to do maths and science than girls.
 Using examples that are more appealing to boys than to girls.
 Using statements that generalize, ‘girls tend to...’ or ‘boys are more...’

Examples of a gender responsive pedagogy are (Mlama, 2005):

 Ask same amount of questions to boys and girls;
 Ask questions of the same difficulty level to boys and girls;
 Use examples that reflect interests of boys and girls;
 Never divide the class by gender, or make statements just addressing one
gender.
 Provide equal opportunities to boys and girls to engage with learning
resources (experiments, concrete materials, ICT);
 Use examples that feature boys and girls in equal amounts and in non-
stereotypical situations (e.g. word problems in mathematics, women as
scientists, men as caregivers);
 During group work, make sure that boys and girls take up leadership roles;
 Foster high expectations for all learners for all subjects (e.g. girls can be
equally good at mathematics and science than boys).
 Encourage students to engage in gender inclusive activities that challenge
them to come out of their gender’s comfort zones (e.g. sports, dance, drama
etc.)
 When gender stereotypes arise in the classroom, the teacher doesn’t ignore
them and uses them to discuss what they mean for enabling students to change
their gender-biased perceptions.

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Section 5: Making Schools Gender Responsive

School leaders should determine the level of gender responsiveness of the school.
This can be done by collecting following information:
 Does the school ensure that both girls and boys have equal access to school
resources such as textbooks, library resources, and laboratory equipment?
 How does the school deal with sexual harassment? How many cases of sexual
harassment are reported in a given period?
 Are there separate and adequate toilets and hygienic facilities for both boys and
girls?
 How many teachers have knowledge and skills about gender responsive teaching?
 Does the school have any activities to promote the participation of girls in science
and maths?
 What action has the community taken to support girls’ education? For example,
curbing early marriage, reducing pregnancy rates, reducing household tasks for
girls, monitoring school attendance of girls, monitoring behaviour of teachers.

Activity 21

With examples, discuss how you can make your school gender responsive.
How can you improve gender equity in your school? In your group, agree on 3
concrete actions that you will work on in your school during the next school year.

Also, think about how you will monitor progress and how you will know at the end
of the year whether your actions were successful.

Online activity 21

Reflect on how you can improve gender equity in your school. In your group, agree
on 3 concrete actions that you will work on in your school during the next school
year. Also, think about how you will monitor progress and how you will know
at the end of the year whether your actions were successful. More instructions
about this activity are available online.

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Based on the collected information, you can indicate steps that might be taken in
each area to improve gender responsiveness. However, a gender-responsive school
requires an integrated approach involving various interventions in an integrated way.
Becoming a gender responsive school should be a key objective in the development
of your SIP (see: Module 2).

Becoming a gender responsive school

should be a key objective in the
development of your SIP.
Interventions to make your school gender responsive can include the following:
1. Organising gender sensitization activities for parents, community members,
teachers, girls and boys to raise their awareness and understanding of the
need to support the education of girls and boys.
2. Training teachers in the skills for making teaching and learning processes
responsive to the specific needs of girls and boys.
3. Making sure that all school stakeholders use gender neutral language when
interacting with students;
4. Empowering girls with skills for self-confidence, assertiveness, speaking
out, decision making and negotiation for them to overcome gender-based
constraints to their education.
5. Empowering boys with skills to refrain from gender oppressive attitudes and
practices such as macho-ism, bullying and sexual affronts and to develop the
self-confidence needed to accept gender equality positively.
6. Training the school community in the skills necessary to improve their
reproductive health and protect themselves against sexually transmitted
diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS.
7. Training the school community to manage sexual maturation issues of both
girls and boys with emphasis on menstruation management.
8. Training teachers and students in guidance and counselling skills.
9. Establishing guidance and counselling safe spaces to provide services for the
social and psychological development of girls and boys.
10. Working with the community to provide support to needy girls and boys to
ensure that they do not drop out of school.
11. Providing gender responsive infrastructure including:

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12. Separate and adequate toilets for girls and boys.

13. Adequate and clean water and sanitation, especially to enhance menstruation
management and the overall health of the school community.
14. Carrying out activities to promote the participation of girls in science and
mathematics subjects.
15. Establishing a gender responsive school management system that ensures
gender equality in the governance and operation of the school. This may
include collecting gender-disaggregated data on all aspects of teaching and
learning.
16. Involving the community and other stakeholders in monitoring and taking
action to ensure improved enrolment, attendance and performance of girls
and boys.
17. Establishing a database to track student performance and welfare as well as
the levels of gender responsiveness of all aspects of the school.

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Section 6: Understanding Inclusive Education

Rwanda signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
on 26 January 1990. According to this Convention, disabled children have a right to
education, and schools have a responsibility to educate all children. However, the
priority needs of disabled children are not special, they are basic. Disabled children
need food, shelter, love and affection, protection, and education.

The UNCRC protects and promotes the rights of all children including disabled
children. Key articles that highlight these rights are:
 Article 2: non-discrimination
 Article 23: disabled children’s rights
 Articles 28 and 29: right to education.

Activity 22

Describe in one sentence what inclusive education means to you. Compare and
discuss your response with your neighbour.

Online activity 22

In the text box provided, describe in one sentence what inclusive education means
to you.

Inclusive education is about treating all learners as individuals. It is about making

sure that all learners can learn. Therefore, it is much broader than special needs
education, which focuses on learners with disabilities.

When we think about inclusive education, often we just think about getting children
into school, i.e. making sure they are present in school. However, we also need to
ensure that children are participating in lessons and school life, and that they are
achieving academically and socially as a result of coming to school.

Always think about: Presence, Participation and Achievement (Ainscow, 2005)

(Figure 12).

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Figure 12: Components of Inclusive Education (Ainscow, 2005)

It is not enough that children simply attend the lessons; all children should be given
the same opportunities to fully participate and achieve the learning outcomes.

Equal presence: Teachers should take daily attendance of the children disaggregated
by sex. If there is an attendance issue specific to boys or girls, talk with parents through
SGA meetings. Invite the concerned parents at school to discuss why girls and boys
should be provided with equal opportunities for learning and how to support their
learning needs.

Equal participation: Teachers should ensure that both girls and boys are participating
actively and that they are given chances to lead in classroom activities, classroom
discussions, and different clubs. There should be full participation of both a girl and
a boy student representative during SGAC meeting.

Equal achievement: Parents, teachers and school leaders should ensure both boys
and girls have equal opportunity to access learning materials and that there are no
achievement gaps. You may think it is too difficult to address the needs of a diverse
range of children, as there are so many challenges. However, by working as a team
within your school, with support from families and local communities, and by making
small changes to your teaching methods, schools can meet the needs of all children
− including those with disabilities.

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The differences between special education, integrated education and inclusive

education can be explained using the analogy of pegs (Figure 13). In a special
education system, there is an education system for “normal” children (round pegs)
and a separate system for children with disabilities (square pegs). In an integrated
education system, children with disabilities are considered a problem and need to be
changed so they can fit into the “normal” education system (from square to round
pegs). An inclusive education system is a system that can accommodate pegs of all
shapes. In inclusive education the system has to change, not the child.

Figure 13: Differences between special, integrated and inclusive education (Thomazet, 2009)

Inclusive education is about making sure that all learners can be present, take part
in learning and achieve good learning results. Which learners are most at risk to be
excluded?

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Activity 23

a. Based on the situation of children in your District/school, identify which

categories of learners are most at risk of being excluded.

b. What are the barriers to inclusive education in your schools in relation to the
following factors:
 home and school environment
 attitudes of different stakeholders and learners
 education policy and other relevant policies
 practices of different education stakeholders and learners
 school and family resources.

Discuss in groups and prepare a poster with your ideas. During a gallery walk, you
will discover the ideas of each group. Using post-it notes, you can add your ideas
on each poster. The photo below (Figure 14) shows an example of such a poster
with some post-it notes from members from various groups.

Online activity 23

Reflect on the following questions and reply in the forum:

a. Based on the situation of children in your District/school, identify which
categories of learners are most at risk of being excluded.
b. What are the barriers to inclusive education in your schools in relation to
the following factors:
- home and school environment
- attitudes of different stakeholders and learners
- education policy and other relevant policies
- practices of different education stakeholders and learners
- school and family resources.
Afterwards read the contributions of colleagues and provide a reply with feedback
or your opinion to at least 1 forum post.

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Figure 14: Example of poster on barriers to inclusive education

Every school, community and country is unique, and has its own set of factors why
children with disabilities cannot access school or have a good educational experience
when they are at school. When we view inclusive education from a social perspective,
we are looking at the causes of exclusion within the society and education system
(for instance, we say that it is not the fault of the child in a wheelchair that she
cannot access the school building, it is the fault of the school building designers who
have not designed an accessible building). To further understand why some children
do not attend school, or fail to participate actively when they are at school, we need
to analyse the barriers they face.

When we are trying to develop more inclusive, quality and child-friendly education,
we need to have a clear idea of what challenges (or barriers) we are facing. This
helps us think of appropriate solutions that fit each unique context. Barriers are
not always obvious and people may perceive barriers to inclusion within the same
situation differently. As we have already discussed, we also need to think about these
barriers from a social perspective – i.e. think about the problems in the society and/
or education system that cause children to be excluded.

There are different types of barriers to inclusive education:

 Environmental barriers: e.g., school buildings and toilets, which are not
accessible.

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 Attitude barriers: e.g., fear, embarrassment, shame, pity, low expectations.

 Policy barriers: e.g. inflexible school timetables; lack of mother tongue
teaching.
 Practice barriers: e.g., a lack of interactive and co-operative teaching.
 Resource barriers: e.g., a shortage of teachers, large class size.

When we think about barriers to inclusion, often we immediately think about physical
barriers, such as stairs and a lack of ramps. However, the biggest barriers to the
inclusion of everyone in education may not always be physical – they may be caused
by negative attitudes, by government or school policies that are discriminatory, by
teaching practices that are not of high quality or by a lack of human and material
resources. Some barriers require us to spend money to solve them (like building a
ramp or printing accessible books). However, many of them can be achieved without
a huge investment of money, but instead by carefully using the money that is already
available.

As an educational leader, you have a role to play as a problem solver. You need to
discuss with teachers and other stakeholders how the school can overcome various
barriers and become more inclusive. You need to stimulate teachers and other
stakeholders to think outside the box and avoid them seeing inclusion as something
that cannot be achieved in schools.

When we think about barriers to inclusion, we need to be as specific as possible, so

that we can find specific and appropriate solutions that will work. For instance, when
looking at teaching practices we might say that, “poor teaching practice is a barrier
to inclusion in my school”. This is a very general view of the problem: it doesn’t tell
us what is wrong with the teaching practice; why is it so poor? This cannot give us
sufficient information to solve the problem. We would need to think more specifically
– for instance, teachers poor practice may be associated with the fact that they just
stand in front of the class and write on the blackboard but never interact with the
children and do not allow children to speak.

When we are thinking about solutions to inclusion barriers, we also need to be

specific. We could say that to improve teaching practices we need to ‘sensitise
teachers’ – but this is vague; What would actually be involved in this task? To be
more specific with the solution we could, for instance, suggest that there needs to
be a project that works with the district or REB to develop an in-service teacher
training program about active learning methods, and techniques for enabling child
participation in class.

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Activity 24

In small groups, select a barrier to inclusive education from the previous activity
that is relevant for you. Discuss the obstacles associated with the selected barrier
and what should be done to overcome the identified obstacles and promote
inclusive education.

Examples are:
 change negative attitudes of parents
 stop child labour
 increase learning of children with disabilities
 implementing policies

For your poster, use a mountain diagram (Figure 15): on the top of the barrier is
the goal. On the road to the mountain, there are obstacles that represent barriers
to inclusive education.

Note: Make sure that each group has selected a different barrier.

This activity is not available online.

Figure 15: Example of a mountain diagram

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Activity 25

In this activity, we will discuss in more detail what inclusive education means
in a school. Think about each statement and vote whether you agree with it
or not.
On one side of the room, there is sign saying ‘Agree’. On the other side of
the room there is a ‘Disagree’ sign. Gather in the middle of the space. Your
facilitator will read aloud a statement related to inclusive education. Stand
next to the agree or disagree sign, depending on whether you agree or disagree
with the statement. If you are not sure you can stand in the middle.
Prepare to justify your views to each other.

1. All children with learning disabilities should sit together in the same
class – this means they would not feel different.

2. Only teachers with a specialised degree in special needs education can

teach children with disabilities.
3. Large class sizes make it impossible for teachers to practise inclusive
education.
4. Communities and schools can work together to make school
environments more accessible.

5. Children who are visually impaired will get a much better education in
a special school for the blind.

6. Teacher training on inclusion for children with disabilities would be

most effective if it is separate to all other training – this is because it is
a specialist area.

7. The main concept of inclusive education is to ensure that children

with disabilities are educated.

8. Children with special needs should be allowed extra time when taking
exams.

9. It is a good strategy for children who have difficulty moving around to

be able to watch other children playing sports such as basketball and
football. By doing this they will feel included.

10. A child who is consistently late for school should be punished – no

matter what the reason is.

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Online activity 25
In this activity, we will discuss in more detail what inclusive education means in a
school. Think about each statement listed and vote whether you agree with it or
not.

Some key elements about inclusive education that you may have discussed during
the previous activity:
 Collaboration is a key element to achieve inclusive education. It is not about
teachers needing a lot of specialized knowledge and skills to deal with learners
with disabilities.
 Inclusive education is about treating all learners as individuals. It is about
good teaching.
 Inclusive education means getting to know your learners and understanding
why learners behave in the way they do. Why is a learner absent-minded,
filthy or disruptive?
 An important role for a school leader is to create a culture of inclusive
education by acting as a role model through each of the five professional
standards of effective leadership.
 Inclusivity goes beyond the school. It is about children who are not learning
because of their home situation, because they are sick or poor or have too
many domestic responsibilities. Therefore, it is important to involve the local
community and look for support to become an inclusive school.

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UNIT THREE
WORKING WITH PARENTS AND THE WIDER
COMMUNITY
Introduction
Productive and positive parent-school-community partnerships play a critical role in
promoting student learning. Parents are the first educators of their children and
they continue to influence their children’s learning and development throughout
the school years. Given the limited time that children spend in school, interactions
with family and community members are likely to have more impact on a child’s
learning and development than school-based interactions. For this reason, parental
and family involvement in education is a critical ingredient in any successful school.

A balanced approach to school decision-making and parental involvement creates a

sense of shared responsibility among parents, community members, teachers and
school leaders. In turn, shared responsibility:
 Ensures that parents’ values and interests are heard and respected;
 Allows for more engaged and supportive parents;
 Makes the school more accountable to its community.
 Helps learners to value the role of their parents in their education.

The school should be a welcoming environment where school leaders and teachers
value and understand the important role of parents in children’s education success.
In such schools, parents are active participants in the life of the school, and feel
connected to each other, to school staff, and to what children are learning.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit, participants should be able to:
 Describe the principles of parent/community-school partnerships;
 Demonstrate ways to involve parents and the wider community in the school;
 Establish strategies to enhance collaboration between the school and parents/
local community as an instrument for improving the quality of teaching and
learning;
 Support the capacity development of the SGAC as a partner in the achievement

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of sustainable learning outcomes;

 Act as a role model in the school and wider community;
 Value the importance of involving parents and the wider community to
achieve high quality inclusive education.

Self-Evaluation

Activity 26
Think individually about common practices in your school and indicate whether
the statements in the table below are valid for your school.
Next, share and discuss your answers with your neighbour. On which statements
do you have the same opinion, and on which did you make a different assessment?

Online activity 26
Think individually about common practices in your school about School – Parent/
Community Partnerships and share your opinion about the statements in the table
provided. Please indicate whether you strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly
disagree with each statement.

Table 9: Self-Evaluation on School – Parent/Community Partnerships

Strongly Strongly
In my school, Agree Disagree
agree disagree

Parents and school staff are active

partners in decisions that affect
children’s learning.

The School General Assembly plays

a role in creating policies, practices
and programs that continuously
improve the school.

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The school is a welcoming

environment whereby school leaders
and teachers value and understand
the important role of parents in
children’s education success.

Parents are active participants in the

life of the school, and feel connected
to each other, to school staff, and to
what children are learning.

Parents and school staff engage

in regular and meaningful
communication about children’s
learning and wellbeing. Information
is shared between school and
parents through a variety of
communication channels to promote
ongoing constructive dialogue.

Parents and school staff continuously

collaborate to support children’s
academic progress both in the
classroom and at home. Assessments
are used to inform support strategies
and monitor learning.

Parents and school staff actively

promote the needs of all children.
Learning environments are
responsive to diverse communities,
and ensure equity in relation
to gender, disability and family
background.

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Parents and school leadership

cultivate positive relationships with
other services within the school
community and work together
to support school improvement.
The school serves as a centre for
community learning events and
requests support for extra-curricular
activities.

Source: Save the Children, Mureke Dusome project, 2017

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Section 1: Research on the involvement of parents and

the wider community in the school
International evidence makes a strong case that schools alone cannot be responsible
for the education of children, but that this is the shared responsibility of schools,
families, and local communities. Various studies have found that lack of positive
relationships between school staff and families have negative effects on children’s
learning outcomes (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). But the opposite is also true; when
families and school staff know each other and have personal, respectful relationships,
students have more academic success. These relationships and the regular
participation of parents help to share the responsibility for learning, and reduce the
potential blaming of teachers for student failures by the parents (Florez, 2011).

When parents are asked by schools to support their students, they develop confidence
in their ability to help their children succeed academically, have positive experiences
with teachers and school leadership, increase their understanding of the school’s
needs, and experience improved communication with their children. Researchers
also found that “educators experience greater job satisfaction, higher evaluation
ratings from the parents and administrators and more positive associations with
their families” when they collaborate with parents (Nyatuka, 2015).

Finding ways to facilitate relationships among parents may lead to increased

participation of families and increased impact of a school’s family engagement
strategy. By creating a social network and community feeling around school priorities,
parents’ interest and enjoyment in attending school events may increase. This
network also may help to improve collaboration and communication among families
around student learning, as well as ownership and accountability for attendance and
participation in school priorities.

For years, research has shown that children who benefit from engaged parents and
supportive community environments are much more likely to succeed in school than
those who do not (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Specifically, these students tend to
have better learning outcomes, higher completion rates, higher attendance, and
better attitudes towards school (Jeynes, 2003). This evidence is true for primary and
secondary school students, regardless of their parents’ education level, their family’s
socio-economic status or where they live (Henderson & Mapp, 2002).

Effective collaboration requires understanding from all stakeholders, time, and

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creativity. Effective parent–school partnerships are collaborative relationships which

involve school staff, parents and the wider school community. This collaborative
relationship is based on mutual trust and respect and shared responsibility for the
education and learning of all students at the school.

Throughout this unit, the term ‘parents’ is used to refer to all primary caregivers.
This recognizes that there are children, in Rwanda and globally, with unique family
situations that involve different family or non-family members.

Parent-school partnerships in many Rwandan schools are not yet sufficiently

developed to ensure children meet the learning goals set in the curriculum. Many
barriers to effective collaboration stem from a lack of understanding around the
impact parents and communities can have when they truly engage with children in
ways that support their learning and development. Kabarere, Muchee, Makewa, &
Role (2013) found that high performing schools in Rwanda tend to have more involved
parents. However, all schools scored low in involving parents in the management
of the school and benefiting from parents as resources to improve teaching and
learning. Recent research into high performing schools in Uganda shows the
importance of active SGACs that are directly involved in supervising and evaluating
teachers and the school’s general performance – teaching, learning, welfare and co-
curricular activities (Twaweza, 2019). In highly performing schools, issues of teacher
absenteeism from school or class are brought to the attention of the SGAC, and such
teachers are required to defend themselves before these bodies (Twaweza, 2019).
This has greatly bridged the accountability gap that is prominent in many schools in
which these structures are not playing such roles. The involvement of these bodies
in supervising schools has also resulted in schools realising and responding to the
need to conduct co-curricular activities.

Historically in Rwanda, expectations around family and community support for

learning have focused mainly on paying school fees, buying uniforms and materials,
or participating in / contributing resources and labour to school building campaigns
(REB, 2012). Many school leaders have been content when some parents turned
up at the SGA meetings (Kabarere et al., 2013). Engagement has been focused
on involvement that does little to build understanding, trust, or collaboration. A
2007 study of practices in Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found
that important education decisions are almost never decentralized in a way that
encourages genuine local community participation (Dunne et al., 2007).

Evidence suggests that many parents still believe that a child’s education is the sole

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responsibility of schools and feel ill-equipped to support their child’s education at

home (Nganga, 2009). Rwandan teachers report that many parents do not have the
time or resources to support their children’s efforts to learn and that many parents
do not regularly meet with teachers to discuss children’s progress (Kabarere et al.,
2013).

The findings of a study conducted in Rwanda on a sample of 354 parents from 89

schools showed that only 64,5% of parents participated at least once per school year
in school functioning and management activities. The study showed also that only
53.3% of parents supported their children to do the homework with a difference
between urban (73%) and rural (43.8%) areas. In the family, the mothers (56%)
supported mostly their children in their homework (Yves, 2011).

The following activity explores the barriers to the active engagement of parents and
identifies strategies to overcome them.

Activity 27

Individually, reflect about the following questions:

What barriers to active engagement do parents face?
For each barrier, what strategies can you use in your school to overcome it?
Discuss your answers with your neighbour and be ready to share the ideas of your
pair with the whole group.

Online activity 27

Reflect on the following questions and reply in the forum:

• What barriers to active engagement do parents face?
• For each barrier, what strategies can you use in your school to overcome it?
Afterwards read the contributions of colleagues and provide a reply with feedback
or your opinion to at least 1 forum post.

Parents (male and female, rich and poor, literate and illiterate, parents with and
without disability) may face a wide range of challenges and require additional
support to participate in the school. However, they can also bring unique expertise
and insights to the school and help the school in becoming more inclusive.

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Box: An example of good practice in a Rwandan school

In one school, the headteacher worked hard to ensure that the school is not seen as
a separate entity but part of the wider community. She worked hard to encourage
the view that parents and teachers work together to develop each child’s potential.

The headteacher wanted to help parents understand what teachers were trying to
achieve on children’s development and shared some challenges faced by teachers.
Hence, she invited parents to a meeting to provide any insights into their children
and help address faced challenges. After the meeting, the headteacher invited
parents to meet with the teachers. The headteacher was also keen for teachers to
understand what challenges parents and families were facing.

The headteacher found the process of bringing teachers and parents together
cleared up many frustrations, for example about the way a teacher handles discipline
or why a parent is unhappy with the amount of homework being assigned to his/
her child. Parents had a better idea of what their child’s day is like. The teachers
gained a better understanding of individual family dynamics, cultural background
and challenges a family faces as well as their strengths. Parents developed a better
understanding of the teacher’s expectations and the challenges that teachers face
in class. Parents also learned to appreciate the values and discipline code of the
school.

As a result of this trust relationships build, more parents volunteered at the school.
Younger children were often excited to see their parents in a volunteer role at
school and helped to give them a positive outlook on school.

Source: BLF, 2019, adapted by VVOB

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Section 2: Epstein’s Model for School-Family-Community

Partnerships
In this section we explore what role parents and communities can play to raise the
quality of teaching and learning in Rwandan schools. To do this, we use a research-
based model that was developed by Joyce Epstein, an American educator. She has
been studying and writing about school-family-community partnerships for over
thirty years. Over time, she has developed and refined a framework for successfully
involving parents and community members in schools (Epstein, 1987). While this
framework was developed in and around American schools, these principles, or some
variation of them, have served as a framework and are applicable to the Rwandan
context.

Activity 28

Think about the following statements and vote whether you agree or don’t agree:
1 It is not necessary to involve all parents as some of them are not interested in
their children’s education.
2 The main purpose of involving parents is to raise funds for the school.
3 It is the school’s responsibility to help parents to support their children with
their education.
4 Parents who are illiterate cannot do much to support their children at school.
5 It is a good idea to organize literacy courses for parents after school hours or
during weekends.
6 I already do a lot to involve parents in the school, but many parents don’t have
time to be involved in the school.
7 Parents should be able to observe lessons of their children in the school.
8 The SGAC meetings are the best instrument to involve parents in the school.
9 Only mothers should be involved in the education of their children at school.

Online activity 28
Think about each statement listed and vote whether you agree with it or not.

Epstein’s model emphasizes six types of community and parental involvement that
schools can use.

1. Parenting: Assist families with parenting skills, family support, understanding

child and adolescent development, and setting home conditions to support

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learning. Assist schools in understanding families’ backgrounds, cultures, and

goals for children.

2. Communicating: Communicate with families about school programs and

student progress. Create effective, reliable two-way communication channels
between school and home.

3. Volunteering: Improve recruitment and training to involve families as volunteers

and as audiences at the school. Enable educators to work with volunteers
who support students and the school. Provide meaningful work and flexible
scheduling.

4. Learning at Home: Involve families with their children in academic learning

at home, including homework, goal setting, and other curriculum-related
activities.

5. Decision Making: Include families as participants in school decisions,

governance, and advocacy activities through school councils or improvement
teams, committees, and other organizations.

6. Collaborating with the Community: Coordinate resources and services for

families, students, and the school with community groups, including businesses,
agencies, cultural and civic organizations, NGOs and colleges or universities.

Activity 29

Complete the following table by indicating your current practices in relation to

the different components of Epstein’s model. Explain how you could use ICT for
each type of parent/community involvement.

Types of Current practices Strategies

involvement
Parenting By school leaders By parents How ICT could be used
Communicating
Volunteering
Learning at home
Decision making
Collaborating
with community

This activity is not available online.

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Section 3: Building School-Community Partnerships in

Rwandan Schools
The National Parent-School Partnership Standards from REB identify what parents
and schools can do together to support student learning. They aim to guide SGAC
leaders, parents, school leadership, teachers, community members and students to
work together for the educational success of all children. The Standards also highlight
best practices for effectively engaging families and communities in supporting
children’s learning both in and out of school.

More specifically, the National Parent-School Partnership Standards aim to:

 Highlight expected competences from parents and schools to build effective
partnership
 Inform the development of a school improvement plan
 Monitor progress in reaching school improvement goals
 Assess current parental involvement practices at the school
 Inform capacity building needs for School General assembly organ
 Develop ideas for engaging parents and communities

Activity 30

Rwanda Education Board and its partners developed the National Parent-School
Partnership Standards, based on Epstein’s work. Read these standards and relate
each standard to the Epstein’s model.

This activity is not available online.

Standard 1-Sharing Responsibility for Learning

Parents and school staff are active partners in decisions that affect children’s learning.
The School General Assembly plays a role in creating policies, practices and programs
that continuously improve their school.

Standard 2- Active Participation in the School Life

The school is a welcoming environment whereby school leadership and teachers

value and understand the important role of parents in children’s education success.
Parents are active participants in the life of the school, and feel connected to each
other, to school staff, and to what children are learning.

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Standard 3- Communicating Effectively

Parents and school staff engage in regular meaningful communication about children’s
learning and wellbeing. Information is shared between school and parents through a
variety of communication channels to promote ongoing constructive dialogue.

Standard 4- Supporting Learning

Parents and school staff continuously collaborate to support children’s academic

progress both in the classroom and at home. Assessments are used to inform support
strategies and monitor children’s learning.

Standard 5-Ensuring Equity and inclusion

Parents and school staff actively promote the needs of all children. Learning
environments are responsive to diverse communities, and ensure equity in relation
to gender, disability and family background.

Standard 6-Collaborating with the Wider Community

Parents and school leadership cultivate positive relationships with other existing
services within the school community and work together to support school
improvement. The school serves as a hub for community learning events and solicits
support for extra-curricular activities.

Activity 31

Based on your self-evaluation about the above standards on building School-

Community Partnerships, write two action points for improvement. Share them
with your neighbour. Explain why you chose these actions.

Online activity 31

Based on your self-evaluation about the above standards on building School-

Community Partnerships, write two action points for improvement. Share them
with your neighbour. Explain why you chose these actions. More instructions
about this activity are available online.

In this section, the importance of building school-community partnerships in Rwandan

schools to support student learning was emphasized. Therefore, school leaders
should invest in building strong school-parents-wider community partnerships.

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Section 4: Involving the Wider Community in

Achieving Inclusive Education
Parents and the wider community play an important role in making the school more
inclusive. Collaboration is a key word in achieving inclusivity. Parents and the wider
community can help teachers and school leaders in finding solutions for learners with
impairments. For example, volunteers can help with assisting learners with visual or
hearing impairments, or with remedial exercises. We will explore how school leaders
can involve the wider community to make the school more inclusive through several
case studies. Each case study introduces one aspect of inclusive education and offers
ideas that you may apply for your own school.

Activity 32

Work in small groups. Read your assigned case story and underline examples of
school community collaboration. Discuss the questions at the bottom of each
case story. Prepare to present your case story and discussion for the whole
group.

Case story 1

I am a head teacher in a 9 Year Basic Education school. We have only a small

number of students. The capitation grant is not enough to accommodate
school issues. I heard that communities in other schools are engaged to improve
children’s learning.

I decided to visit a similar neighbouring school. In my learning visit, I was

welcomed by the head teacher at the primary school. I sat with him for a while
in his office and he shared with me how his school has managed to improve
over the last several years. He said that one of the factors that had helped
children have better results was the useful collaboration they have with the
community around the school. The head teacher in collaboration with the
SGAC had mobilized funds during an accountability day. The funds were used to
purchase books and other reading materials to be used by children and other
people in the community. After seeing those books, parents began making
reading materials from recycled materials. On a quarterly basis, the community
came together to make additional reading or scholastic materials.

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In a short tour around the school, the head teacher took me to a learning
centre inside the school where people from the surrounding community meet
for capacity building in various domains including learning languages as well
as adult literacy classes. Returning from the visit, I shared the learning with
teachers and SGAC. We discussed how we could apply similar measures in our
school context and generated an action plan based on these ideas.

Based on the examples described in the case story, identify other initiatives of
collaboration with the community that can help your school improve students
learning outcomes.

Case story 2

In my school, we had an issue of dropout and poor attendance for primary

children. Together with the SEO, SGACs, and cell and village leaders, we formed
groups and decided to visit households in the community. We interviewed
children and adults in the households separately to find out why children were
not in school. In many cases, adults reported that they were keen for their
children to go to school, but the children indicated that their parents wanted
them to work or were prioritizing the education of a sibling. Some parents were
ignoring or hiding their children with disabilities, because they thought they
could not successfully attend school with other children.

After discussing this together, the school, village, and cell leadership decided to
collaborate to monitor daily attendance records. Children attending less than
15 days a month are considered to have dropped out of school. School and
community leadership groups then visit the households of the children to find
out why they were not attending. They work with the parents and community to
overcome the barriers they were facing. Solutions have ranged from organizing
extra support by adult volunteers to children with disabilities, to creating funds
to help the poorest families to enrol their children in school. The sector is using
the data from the visits to prioritize their resources in order to reach all school
aged children.

What best practices have you learnt from this story? How are you going
to apply these practices? What else can you do to ensure equity and social
inclusion in your school?

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Case story 3

My name is Mutoni and I am ten years old. In my family, I have a mother, two
elder brothers and one younger sister. My mother sells vegetables in the
market to support our family. I like reading books, but it is rare for me to find
time to read. My brothers often bring books home from school and read in
the afternoons, but that is when I must cook dinner for my family. During the
weekend, my brothers attend the reading club in the village, but that is when
I must clean the house, wash the clothes and care for my baby brother. By
Monday, I am exhausted from all the housework and have not found the time
to do my homework. When I get at school, I fail to do exercises given by the
teacher.

During a Parent-Teacher Day, the Girls Club presented a sketch that reflected
my life. After the presentation, parents discussed the challenges girls were
facing and many testified that were also disproportionately burdening their
daughters with domestic responsibilities. My mother was also in the meeting.
When we reached home, she called me and my brothers together and told
us that we need to share the domestic work so that I could also have time to
attend the reading club, revise my lessons and play. From that time onward, I
began arriving at school on time and my grades started improving!

To what extent do you think there are girls in your school who face similar
challenges as Mutoni? Are there other gender-related obstacles that girls or
boys in your school experience?

Case Story 4

Parent A: Last year my child repeated Primary One. I am interested in supporting

my child’s learning so he can do better, but I am not sure how. I take part in the
SGA meetings, but they seem to be rarely held. The head teacher appears to
be very busy and I don’t think she has time to work with the SGAC. The SGAC
parent representatives are also teachers, so I don’t feel as if I can approach
them with my issues. I decide to stay out of the school affairs and trust that the
teachers will help my child to do better this year.

Parent B: Last year my child repeated Primary One. I heard that many other

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children in the same class also repeated. Together with my child’s teacher, we
raised our concern during the SGA meeting. The SGAC President took note of
the issue and a committee was elected to investigate the causes of excessive
repetition of students identifying barriers both in and out of school. In the next
SGA meeting, the committee presented the findings. Based on this, the SGAC
made an action plan to resolve this challenge, and a special SGA meeting was
called to share it. Parents gave feedback on the improvement measures and
responsibilities were clearly laid out. School leaders, teachers and parents
collaborated on the improvement plan, and progress was monitored.

Parent A and Parent B describe different experiences with the school. Which
type of experience is more common in Rwanda? What do parents at your
school often do when their children are not succeeding academically? What
can school leaders and SGAC do to improve this?

Case story 5

I am a deputy head teacher in a school where most parents are not involved
in children’s learning. The School General Assembly meetings occur but only
40% of the parents usually attend. In the SGAC meeting, we brainstormed
how parents can be encouraged to volunteer in the school. We identified areas
where the school could use support from parents.

Everyone in the SGAC was given a village in which he/she became a focal point
to go to work with the village chief in sensitizing parents on the importance of
volunteering in school activities. We shared different areas where volunteers
were needed. Parents were asked about their interest and availability to
volunteer. Everyone indicated the type of activities they could support and a
schedule based on her/his availability, including at least one volunteer day per
term. Some parents committed to more frequent volunteer visits, even on a
weekly basis.

As a result, parents from all levels of socio-economic backgrounds started

to volunteer in different school activities. Literate parents planned visits to

read with P1, P2 and P3 students who are at risk of repeating. Artistic parents
supported teachers to make classroom displays, such as alphabet or number
charts.

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Parents who knew how to sew helped repair books and other ripped learning
materials. Others who had building experience, helped to make the new pre-
primary classrooms more child-friendly by adjusting desk height to fit smaller
children. The parents got the opportunity to know each other through their
volunteering efforts which improved parents’ communication and support
network. As a result of this success, we organized an end-of-the-year event to
celebrate our achievements.

Based on the examples provided in the case story and in the previous activity
description, identify 5 areas where parent volunteers could support your school
improvement plan.

Case story 6

As a head teacher, I received several complaints from parents about teachers in

my school. Similarly, at staff meetings, teachers complained that parents weren’t
supporting their children. I discussed the issue with my deputy head teacher
and the other SGAC members, and we decided to organize a Parent-Teacher
Day at school. We chose a day during school holidays when teachers didn’t
have lessons. We invited families to come to school to discuss their children’s
progress. During the Parent-Teacher Day, some meetings were very productive.
Teachers gave updates on the child’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as other
general observations. They also shared various ideas with parents on how
they could support their children’s learning at home. However, I also noticed
a meeting where the teacher was too critical of the child’s learning abilities.
He asked the parent why she never replied to the information he sent home.
The parent responded that she was frustrated about the negative messages she
always received and felt the teacher was not doing his job.

Based on the observations from Parent-Teacher Day, I realized that teachers need
guidance on how to give productive feedback to parents. I organized a session
with the teaching staff. I explained the importance of how we communicate with
parents. I suggested always starting communication with a positive aspect, for
example, something the child does well or a good personality trait.

I explained that after the positive comment, teachers can introduce challenges
or areas for improvement, choosing their words carefully to not make parents
defensive.

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They should also encourage parents to respond or share their ideas on the
issue. Finally, teachers should finish with another encouraging comment or
appreciation in order to end on a positive note. Teachers began applying this
approach. Communication between parents and schools increased. Teachers
began communicating more positive feedback to parents. As a result, I noticed
parents coming to school to talk to teachers, not only when there was a problem
but also for regular interaction and communication.

What was the challenge this head teacher faced and the strategy she used to
address it? How did she refine her approach to be more impactful?

Case story 7

I was deployed to work in another district. I registered my child in the local

school. I noticed the school leadership was mostly focusing on Primary
six classes and ensuring teachers prepare students to pass the National
Examination. However, even those Primary six students were not performing
well because they did not have the foundations from the lower grades.

In the SGA meeting, parents blamed teachers and the school leadership that
their children were not performing well. I shared with them some of the
factors that I saw working in my child’s previous school. I discussed how the
school empowered teachers and parents to monitor students learning through
formative assessments. Children were assessed regularly through exercises
and activities that checked if they were learning. When struggling students
were identified, parents and teachers met to discuss strategies to support the
child. Parents were interested so we organized another meeting whereby a
workshop was provided to parents on how they can support their children’s
learning both at home and at school. Parents were coached on how to help
children to revise lessons at home, read with them and provide the required
learning materials.

Parents gradually became more confident engaging in their children’s learning

process. They monitored how their children’s learning was progressing and
met teachers to discuss areas where their children needed additional support.
Parents in the communities committed themselves to helping children complete
their homework, revise for exams and to read recreationally. Teachers were

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motivated by parental involvement in their children’s education. They began

using teaching methods to meet individual learning needs. They allowed children
to take learning materials home to use with their parents. They conducted simple
formative assessments and communicated regularly with parents when children
were having difficulty. The following year, children’s performance considerably
improved.

Which actions do you think were the most significant to improve children’s
learning? Why?

Online activity 32

Read your assigned case story and underline examples of school community
collaboration. Reply in the forum to the question written at the end of each case
story. Afterwards read the other contributions and provide a reply with feedback
or your opinion to at least 1 forum post. You are also encouraged to read the
discussions about the other case stories.

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Exploring school activities to support local communities

Activity 33

What is your school already doing to support the community?

Individually, write on flash cards activities that you are doing in your schools to
support the local community. Then, stick them on the wall. Through a gallery
walk you will explore the activities from other participants.

Online activity 33

Reflect on the following question:

What is your school already doing to support the community?
Share at least 1 activity. More instructions about this activity are available online.

Although schools have limitations, they can still provide great resources to support
communities to address their challenges and increase their connection with the
school.

 Provide expanded learning: By allowing community members to benefit from

the school resources. For example, allowing the community to access book
collections from the school library. A teacher can provide parenting sessions to
the families in the school community.

 Build broad-based support for increased welfare of the surrounding community:

The school can teach the neighbouring community about important community
issues such as hygiene, diet. Etc. Additionally, the school can initiate projects to
raise funds to support the poorest families and to create programs that support
vulnerable families.

 Provide quality extra-curricular programmes: The school can collaborate with

parents to strengthen after school learning activities. For example, teachers can
be encouraged to support and assist extracurricular community activities during
school holidays.

 Creating a welcoming environment

• Provide a display space or notice board for important information:
- Contact information for the school administrators, teachers, SGAC

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president
- School calendar with a list of important dates and events
- Announcements.
• Invite parents to visit the school
- Plan days and hours for the visit that are flexible to both male and
female parents
- Through village meetings and Umuganda, share times when school
leaders will be available at school for a meeting (e.g. Friday mornings)
- Encourage parents to visit during break and lunch times when staff
are more available to discuss their children’s education issues;
- Coordinate school tours and orientation for new parents
- Inform parents at the beginning of each term on what their children
will be learning and how they can help them.
• Ensure physical space is made available for parent coordination and activities
• Provide disability & gender sensitive access to buildings (classrooms, offices
and toilets)
 Prepare and publicize school activities in which parents participate like leading
discussions on a given topic.

Parent-Friendly Staff
 Support office staff and teachers to
- Be open and welcoming to parents
- Communicate information (positives not just problems)
- Encourage participation
- Be responsive to parents and their needs/requests

Parent-Friendly Policies
 Working with SGAC and other parents, the school staff can develop and
publicly post a parent-school partnership policy that explains the school’s
commitment to involvement of parents in school activities and parents’
commitment to the school and its staff.
 Ensure the SGAC and parents perspectives are included when developing the
school’s improvement plan. This will ensure their views are reflected and that
they have ownership of the plan and can support its implementation.

Practical ideas for parent volunteer activities

 Support after school activities like reading clubs, mathematics practice, sport
and cultural activities

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 Make class displays, like alphabet or number charts

 Repair textbooks, storybooks or other teaching and learning materials
 Construct new classrooms or rehabilitate old ones
 Plant trees in the school compound
 Assist in planning and organizing school events
 Give presentations in classes or at assemblies about their specializations and
skills in different domains (safety, hygiene, etc.)
 Provide one-on-one support to struggling learners or children with disabilities.
 Identify children in the community who have dropped out of school and work
with school staff to reach out to them
 Volunteer during lessons to support group or project work
 Support with the development of learning and teaching materials from
recycled materials.

Activity 34

Think about the school you are leading and its wider community. What measures
will you take to involve the wider community more in the school? For each
measure, write down the expected outcomes. Use the table below to rank them
according to their order of importance.

In the table below identify three measures you will take to involve the wider
community more in the school.

Measures Expected outcomes

1.
2.
3.

Online activity 34

Think about the school you are leading and its wider community. What measures
will you take to involve the wider community more in the school? For each measure,
write down the expected outcomes. Use the table to rank them according to their
order of importance.

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In this section, we have seen the role of parents and the wider community in achieving
inclusive education. Parents and the wider community can contribute to a more
inclusive school in a variety of ways, for example by volunteering in providing learner
support and organizing extra-curricular activities. The school, parents and the wider
community are partners in developing the full potential of all learners. In the next
section, we will discuss the role of the School General Assembly Committee.

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Section 5: Strengthening the Capacity of the School

General Assembly Committees
In this section, we explore the role of the SGAC in improving teaching and learning.
A SGAC will only be able to support school leaders and teachers in raising the quality
of the school if it has the capacity to do so. An important role of school leaders is
therefore to strengthen the capacity of the SGAC.

Activity 35
Think individually about the following questions about the School General Assembly
(SGA) and the School General Assembly Committee (SGAC). Next, discuss your
ideas with your neighbour. Prepare to share the outcomes of your discussion with
the whole group.

 How are the School General Assembly Committees (SGACs) elected at

your schools?
 How do you work with the SGAC and SGA?
 What is the role and purpose of the School General Assembly (SGA) and
the School General Assembly Committee (SGAC)?
 Are at least thirty percent (30%) of the members of the SGAC females
in your school? What strategies do you have in place to ensure that this
30% female membership is achieved?

Online activity 35
Think individually about the following questions related to the School General
Assembly (SGA) and the School General Assembly Committee (SGAC). Post a reply
to the following questions:
 How are the School General Assembly Committees (SGACs) elected at
your schools?
 How do you work with the SGAC and SGA?
 What is the role and purpose of the School General Assembly (SGA) and
the School General Assembly Committee (SGAC)?
 Are at least thirty percent (30%) of the members of the SGAC females
in your school? What strategies do you have in place to ensure that this
30% female membership is achieved?
Now, discuss with your colleagues in the forum by sharing your ideas about at least
1 post.

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The School General Assembly is the supreme organ in terms of learning, teaching
and welfare. It monitors the overall operation of the school and takes a keen interest
in the school development (Official Gazette n° 31 of 30/07/2012). In particular, it is
responsible to:
1. formulate the specific vision of the school in accordance with its mission;
2. provide views and suggestions in relation to the school’s overall development;
3. appoint and remove members of the School General Assembly Committee;
4. appoint and remove Audit Committee members;
5. submit SGA meeting reports to the administrative sector authorities with
a copy thereof to the Executive Secretary of the Cell in which the school is
located;
6. submit meeting reports to the Sector authorities with a copy thereof to the
Executive Secretary of the Cell in which the school is located;
7. approve internal rules and regulations of the school;
8. approve the annual budget of the school;
9. to approve the contribution of parents if necessary.

The School General Assembly Committee (SGAC) is the level of the School General
Assembly that is in charge of implementing the decisions of the School General
Assembly (Official Gazette n° 31 of 30/07/2012). The SGAC should meet once a term.
Whenever necessary, the SGAC can hold a special meeting.

The SGAC members are:

 The President
 The Vice President
 The owner of the school, or a representative
 The school head teacher who is also the secretary
 Two advisors elected by the parents
 Two teachers (a man and a woman) representing all teachers, elected by the
body of teachers
 Two students (a boy and a girl) representing the students, also elected by the
students.
At least thirty percent (30%) of members of the SGAC must be females.
Key responsibilities of SGA and SGAC members and key principles of engaging SGA
and SGACs are stipulated in the ministerial order no 003/2016 of 08/01/2016 that
governs the functioning of SGA and SGAC. The basic responsibilities of the SGAC are
the following:

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 Follow up of the implementation of the decisions taken by the General

Committee;
 Prepare the General Assembly meeting;
 Follow up on the use of school’s budget and its wealth;
 Examine the school’s existing problems and ways of solving them;
 Present to the General Assembly the objectives for improving the quality of
education and school performance and governance;
 Monitor students that have dropped out or have high rates of absenteeism,
and encourage them to value their education;
 To link the school and the parents, neighbours of the school and the local
authorities;
 To follow up on the promotion of a culture of reading within and outside the
school;
 To follow up on the promotion of peace building, equity and inclusion;
 All other activities that the General Assembly will assign.

Relationship between the SGAC and school leaders

Studies show that better-achieving schools have higher levels of trust between school
staff and parents, while schools with the lowest achievement rates have minimal trust
(Kabarere et al., 2013; Save the Children, Mureke Dusome project, 2017). Therefore,
SGAC members must have a close working relationship with the school leadership.
This working relationship is characterized by:
 Collaboration in the preparation of school guidelines and development plans
 Building trust among SGAC and School Leadership
 Promoting transparency and sharing information on time
 Respect the number of SGA and SGAC meetings as stipulated in the Law
 Publicise and recognize the achievements resulting from the collaboration
with parents
 Work together to find solutions for challenges the school is facing

When this relationship is not well managed, it can create conflicts in the school.
Some problems which can occur are:
 Some SGAC members, such as the school owner or President, conduct
excessive supervision of school activities;
 School leaders plan and implement all activities without involving other SGAC
members;

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 Parent voices are not heard because elected parent representatives are also
teachers or school staff;
 The elected committee are based solely on the opinions of the head teacher;
 Only the head teacher and SGAC president are involved in school activities.
Other members of the SGAC are not involved;
 Meetings that are not carried out because there is lack of collaboration
between the head teacher and SGAC members

Box: Helping parents understand how their children learn in the classroom

Each teacher can invite small groups of parents to come and watch/listen to
lessons in their child’s class. S/he chooses a lesson that takes place directly
before a break or at the end of the day so that the learners leave the class
after the lesson. The teacher should prepare very well for this lesson and make
sure the lesson plan has clear objectives, uses a range of activities and includes
opportunities for formative assessment.

The procedure below has worked well for other teachers.

1. The teacher prepares the classroom so that the parents sit at the back of
the classroom where they can see the learners, but the learners cannot
see them unless they turn around.
2. The teacher explains to the parents that they should not talk or disturb
the learners during the lesson. Tell the parents the topic of the lesson
they will observe.
3. The teacher tells the learners that some of their parents are coming to
watch their lessons.
4. Parents should come into the class once all the learners are sitting
quietly. They should walk to the back and sit down.
5. The teacher welcomes the parents and thanks them for coming. S/he
asks them to observe the different types of activities the learners do and
the way in which the learners work with one another.
6. The teacher teaches the lesson using a learner-centred approaches
which include group work or pair work; the teacher should also use a
range of open-ended questions.
7. Teacher concludes the lesson as usual and the learners are sent out.
8. The teacher discusses the lesson with the parents. The teacher explains
the objective of the lesson and gives her/his view of how well the
learners achieved the objective. The teacher asks the parents about the
lesson:

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 what they liked about the lesson;

 what they didn’t like;
 what they saw the children doing;
 what they think the children learned.
9. The teacher should take the opportunity to explain the importance of:
 having clear objectives for every lesson;
 open-ended questions where learners have to predict, give
opinions, imagine etc.;
 group work or pair work where learners have to complete a task;
 formative assessment.
10. Discuss with parents how they can use some of the ideas they observed
in the classroom with their children at home, e.g. asking open questions,
letting the children complete tasks independently, helping them to work
collaboratively with older or younger siblings.
11. Thank the parents for their participation. Tell them that if they have any
questions or concerns about their child’s learning they should come and
see you anytime at the end of the school day or other appropriate time.
Encourage parents to come to PTA meetings and other meetings at the
school to participate in school decision-making and school activities.
Source: BLF, 2019

Activity 36
Using Table 10, agree on 5 strategies that you will implement in your school to
improve the involvement of parents and the wider community. You can also
identify strategies that are not yet in the table.

Online activity 36
Using the online table, identify 5 strategies that you will implement in your school
to improve the involvement of parents and the wider community. You can also
identify strategies that are not yet in the table. More instructions about this
activity are available online.

Table 10 provides many suggestions on what parent representatives and school

leaders can do to improve the involvement of parents and the community in the
school.

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Table 10: Roles and Responsibilities of Parent Representatives and school Leaders

What Parent Representatives can do What school leaders can do

Organize meetings within the

Support the school leadership to identify school and invite all stakeholders
community partners that can support families and community partners to create
and school a plan for working together, along
with check-in points to assure
progress is occurring

Work with the school to plan school Identify and invite partners in the
improvement activities and send out community that can support the
invitations to community partners who can school to provide rewards during
fund efforts. school events

Support vulnerable parents to

Connect low income and vulnerable families
find opportunities to raise their
with agencies that can support them to raise
income and be able to satisfy the
their income
learning needs of their children

Agree with school leaders on which school

Discuss with the community ways
resources can be used by the community,
of maintaining well the rented
as well as the time, place and specifics of
resources
accessing them

Inform the community members

Communicate to the community the available
the available resources at school
school resources that vulnerable families can
that can be useful to them and
access
how they can benefit them

Celebrate the achievements of

the school resulting from the
Collaborate with village leaders to celebrate
collaboration with the community
the achievements of the village as result of
and acknowledge partners who
use of school resources
availed resources to be benefited
by the school

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Work with the SGAC to identify

Work with the school to identify teachers for
teachers for facilitating parenting
facilitating parenting sensitization sessions
sensitization sessions

Engage former students who completed at Engage former students and

least primary level to participate in out of Urugerero youth to participate in
school children’s learning activities the development of the school

Collaborate with volunteers

Mobilize parents to use locally available who are promoting afterschool
materials to be used by children in reading learning activities and support
clubs within the village them with basic materials to
make learning resources

Peer learning from other SGAC on their Peer learning from what other
achievements in promoting collaboration with schools achieved in collaboration
the wider community with the wider community

Involve parents in the

Participate in establishing school vision and
establishment of school vision
Guidelines
and guidelines

Working in partnership with the school

leadership, identify ways the SGA can support Present school projects and plans
one or more goals of the school improvement to parents and value their inputs
plan
Encourage parents to participate actively in
various SGA committees and other temporary Involve all parents in decision
committees formed to resolve identified making
issues as they arise
Encourage both male and female parents and Ensure SGA meetings are well
parents with disabilities to participate in SGA planned and involve all SGA
meetings and arrive on time members either males or females

Communicate the importance

Encourage women to communicate their ideas
of women having equal
in meetings and to assume SGAC leadership
representation in terms of
responsibilities
leadership and voice

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Ensure there is diverse parent representation

Empower the SGAC members
in the SGAC, including parents of children at
to effectively assume their
different grade levels, gender, social economic
responsibilities
status or disability
Acknowledge parents who
Throughout the year, publicly acknowledge
participate actively in SGA
committed teachers and appreciate their
activities and contribute to the
efforts
school improvement plan

Identify and share ways to make all families Adopt a specific schedule to meet
feel welcome and involved with parents

Ensure that all school staff are

Encourage parents to visit children at school friendly, acknowledge and assist
and in classroom. Ensure that male and female visitors immediately, as well as
parents follow up of their children’s learning communicate regularly with
at school and at home parents by phone, WhatsApp or
any other communication

Communicate activities that can

Mentor parents who need support or
be done by volunteering parents
encouragement to be involved
within the school

Identify different talents parents possess Share with parents the school
and share the information with the school ‘s needs in terms of areas for
leadership volunteerism

Establish and monitor parent volunteer Establish and monitor parent

programmes. volunteer programs

SGAC reach out to parents who are not Value and include every parent
involved and encourage participation in SGA regardless of social economic
meetings and school activities background

Inform the parents and the

Mobilize parents to participate in school
community what is happening
events and support planning and organization
in school and encourage
when necessary
participation

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Invite parents to be involved

SGAC ensure significant parent involvement in
in developing the school
the school improvement plan
improvement plan

Recognize the special constraints on parents

Discuss with SGAC members
with disabilities and share with the school
strategies to involve parents with
strategies to involve those parents in the
disabilities in the school activities.
school activities.

Put in place mechanisms of

Put in place mechanisms of supporting
supporting children with learning
children with learning difficulties.
difficulties.

Encourage parents to ask children what they Ensure teachers provide regular
have done or learnt at school each day. If the homework to children and ensure
content is new or unfamiliar, have the child that children are supported to do
explain it it.

Encourage parents to read their child’s report

cards and see where they are doing well and Avail time to discuss with parents
the areas where they need help. Encourage how they can support children
them to ask teachers how they can help their improve their results
child improve

Encourage parents to discuss with their Discuss with children about what
children about what they think is helping or they think is helping or hindering
hindering their learning their learning

Encourage parents to ask their children or

Communicate to parents how
their child’s teacher what they are doing well
children are progressing and
in. What have been their successes? Then
areas they need support
praise them and celebrate progress.

Encourage parents to read together at home. Encourage teachers to lend books

If they aren’t literate, help them find someone and other reading materials to
else to read with. children to read at home

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Encourage parents to ensure that their child Communicate to parents the

has the essential materials they need to learn, needed materials at the start
such as notebooks, books, pens, school bag, of the year. Inform them of the
etc usefulness of those materials.

Encourage parents to play games with their Encourage parents and teachers
children at home that use words and numbers. to sing, tell stories and share
Sing, tell stories, and share proverbs proverbs with their children

Encourage parents to make

learning and play materials from
Encourage parents to make learning and play
the local environment. Show
materials from local resources. Share and
examples of self-made materials
show examples.
that can support different
learning areas

Talk with parents whose children

Encourage parents to ensure that their child is
seem to be unhealthy, unclean
healthy, clean and has enough food. Children
or hungry. Discuss how these
cannot learn well if they are sick or hungry.
challenges can be addressed

Encourage parents to discuss with teachers Identify children with special

any learning barriers their child has. This will needs, talk with their parents and
allow the teacher to better create a classroom ensure that you take measures
conducive environment that supports his/ her that facilitate them in their
learning learning

Work with other stakeholders,

Ensure all school-aged children attend school parents and children to identify
and that those with disabilities are provided and consult children at risk of
appropriate support. exclusion, as well as their families,
to ensure support is provided.

Observe an extra-curricular
Recruit parent volunteers to provide extra activity such as a reading club and
support and supervision to children with provide constructive feedback to
disabilities. community volunteers on how to
better include all children.

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Through careful observation of

students and by collaborating with
teachers and parents, identify
Sensitize all parents on how to talk to their children with learning disabilities.
children about inclusion and discrimination. Support these children to learn
with others in the classroom or
seeking further guidance from
your SEO or partners.

Ensure teachers of children with

Encourage parents of children with disabilities
special needs meet regularly with
to meet regularly with teachers to discuss
parents to discuss the child’s
the child’s progress, needs, and how to best
progress, needs, and how to best
support his/her learning.
support his/her learning.

Provide gender-sensitization
training to teachers that include
specific instructional strategies

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Section 6: Planning and Conducting Effective SGA and

SGAC meetings
SGA and SGAC meetings are the ideal opportunity for parents, parent leaders and
school staff to communicate. For this communication to be effective, the meetings
must be well planned and facilitated.

Activity 37

Discuss the following questions in small groups:

 How do you plan or prepare for effective SGAC meetings? What needs to
be done in advance?
 How do you communicate the time for meeting to parents? Is this effective?
 How do you conduct SGA meetings? How do you identify the different
agenda items of the meeting?
 How do you encourage active participation of all parents?
 How do you encourage children (boys and girls) to raise their voices and
perspectives?
 What strategies are used to ensure communication is two-way (not just
giving information, but also receiving ideas)?

Online activity 37

Discuss the question assigned to your group individually.

Afterwards, provide feedback to at least 1 of the posts of your colleagues.

After your discussion, read the text below to learn more how to plan and conduct an
SGA or SGAC meeting.

There are different ways to plan and conduct a SGAC or SGA meeting depending on
the objectives. Below are some guidelines:
 Prepare the objectives and agenda of the meeting in advance. Consult SGAC
leaders and other school staff to inform/decide on the main objective for the
meeting.
 Think about who should attend the meeting and prepare invitations. Use
various communication channels to ensure that they are accessible to all
parents, including those with disabilities

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 Send invitations on time (14 days in advance for normal meetings, and 5
days in advance for urgent meetings)
 Prepare the venue for the meeting, ensure adequate seating for all.
 Agree on how the meeting will be conducted to engage parents to
participate actively.

STRUCTURE OF A SGAC or SGA MEETING

1. Opening the meeting
 Welcome word by the President of SGAC (Chair of the meeting)
 Presentation of the chair of the meeting, the minute-taker and any
visitors
 Monitor attendance. Ensure there is a sufficient number of attendees
required to hold the meeting
 Explain the objective of the meeting
 Run through the agenda of meeting and check if there are any
additional points to be added
 Set ground rules, such as respecting ideas of others, staying on
topic, avoid receiving calls inside the room, not interrupting others, etc.

2. Review the minutes of the previous meeting

 Give a summary of the previous meeting
 Check if action points taken were put into practice
 Discuss challenges or future action points
 Approve minutes

3. During the meeting

 Address each agenda item
 Minute taker records a summary of ideas
 Action points, responsible people and time frames are decided for
each item

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4. Closing the meeting

 Share with attendees a summary of decisions and action points
 Agree on date of next meeting
 Thank participants
 Remind participants to sign attendance list

5. Things to be considered while chairing a meeting

 Good management of time. If necessary, end discussions or suggest
that they can be continued after the meeting.
 Ensure communication remains positive and productive
 Encourage active participation of all participants, including men and
women and people with disabilities.
 Discourage “sub-meetings” (meetings within meetings) of parents
discussing issues simultaneously
 Reach consensus after having discussed an issue
 Support attendees who have difficulty in expressing themselves, so
they can also be heard
 Manage different behaviours of participants in the meeting

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Conclusion
In Unit three we discussed the importance of working with parents and the wider
community in strengthening quality education in Rwandan schools. The Ministry of
Education developed national Parent-School partnership standards as a guideline for
education leaders to strengthen the parental and wider community involvement. It
has also established national legal frameworks for school general assembly, school
general assembly committees and school leaders’ responsibilities. The unit has
provided a wide range of ideas and examples of how you can involve parents and the
community in the education process. This may include income generating activities,
support for learners with learning difficulties, literacy classes and clubs, ICT classes
for parents, and support with construction. This partnership works in both ways:
schools and the community can help parents with the education of their children,
and parents and the community can support the school in achieving quality inclusive
education.

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MINEDUC. (2018). 2017 Education Statistics. Rwanda. mineduc.gov.rw/fileadmin/

user_upload/pdf.../Rwanda_Education_Statistics_2017.pdf

Mlama, P. M. (2005). Gender Responsive Pedagogy: A Teacher’s Handbook. http://

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APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Definitions Education Indicators
The following definitions come from UNESCO’s Education Indicators Technical
Guidelines (2009).

1. Gross Enrolment Rate (GER)

Total number of students enrolled in a specific level of education, regardless of age,

expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population corresponding to the
same level of education in a given school year. t stands for any school year (grade 1,
grade 2…). Thus, if there is late enrolment, early enrolment, or repetition, the total
enrolment can exceed the population of the age group that officially corresponds to
the level of education – leading to ratios greater than 100 percent.

2. Net Enrolment Rate (NER)

Enrolment of children at the official age group for a given cycle of education expressed
as a percentage of the corresponding population. t stands for any school year (grade
1, grade 2…). Net enrolment rates below 100 per cent provide a measure of the
proportion of primary school age children who are not enrolled in primary school. t
stands for any school year (grade 1, grade 2…).

3. Repetition rate (RR)

Divide the number of repeaters in a given grade in school year t by the number of
pupils from the same cohort enrolled in the same grade in the previous school year
t-1. For example, you divide the number of learners from the cohort 2006-2007

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enrolled in grade 5 in 2017 and compare them with the number of learners from the
same cohort enrolled in the same grade in 2016.

4. Drop-out Rate (DR)

The percentage of pupils who leave the school without completing the grade they
were enrolled in during the school year.

5. Gross Intake Ratio (GIR)

Total number of new entrants in a certain grade of education, regardless of age,

expressed as a percentage of the population at the official entrance age to that grade
of education. The GIR for P6 and S6 are used as an alternative for the completion
rates of primary and secondary education respectively. Calculation includes all new
entrants to the grade (regardless of age). Therefore, the ratio can exceed 100%, due
to over-aged and under-aged children who enter primary school late/early and/or
repeat grades. A high GIR may be the effect of a backlog of over-aged children who
have not entered school when they were at the official primary school entrance age.

6. Net Intake Ratio (NIR)

New entrants to a certain grade of education who are of the official entrance age
for that grade, expressed as a percentage of the population of the same age. It is
calculated by dividing the number of children of official grade entrance age by the
population of the same age and multiply the result by 100. The NIR cannot exceed
100% and is always lower than the GIR.

7. Transition Rate (TR)

The number of new entrants in a given level of education as a percentage of the

pupils who were enrolled in the previous level of education in the previous year. Only

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new pupils entering the next level of education are given consideration; repeaters
at this level are eliminated. For example, Primary to Secondary is the proportion
of pupils in the last grade of primary in year t-1 who transition to the first grade of
secondary the following school year t.

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UR-CE 2020
Appendix 2: Self-Evaluation Tool for Professional Standards for Effective School
Leadership

Competence levels Excellent: School leader Good: School Developing: School

Unsatisfactory Evidence: Examples
is self- initiating, exceeds leader’s practices leader’s practices
School Leader’s may include, but are
expectations, has insightful are relevant and are evident, but
practices are not limited to:
grasp of the effective appropriate to neither sufficient nor
minimal or
school leadership and is a quality work. consistent. The level
non-existent,
model for other leaders. Performance of performance is
or having an
matches with below expectation
adverse impact
expected levels of
on the school
performance

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

CPD-DESL
 Standard One: Creating Strategic Direction for the school: School leader involves members of the school community and stakeholders (students,

CPD-DESL
staff, parents, local leaders and partners) in setting and working towards achieving a shared school vision and mission and set core values of high-
quality education and academic success for, and well-being of, each student.

Unsatisfactory: [0-
Excellent: [3 -4.0] Good: [2 -3[ Developing: [1 -2.0[ Evidence /4
1.0[

1. The school 1. The school leader 1. The school leader 1. The school leader - Minutes of meetings where school
leader involves all involves some members rarely involves the has not involved vision and mission were discussed
members of the of the school community school community school community
school community and or some stakeholders members in setting members when -Findings from interviews with
and stakeholders in setting and/or working and/ or working developing school stakeholders
in an equitable and towards achieving a shared towards achieving a vision and mission.
gender responsive school vision and mission shared school vision
way in developing at some stages during the and mission
and implementing a process.
shared school vision
and mission during
the whole process.

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2. The school leader 2. The school leader 2.The school leader 2. The school leader -Clearly Written School vision, mission
ensures that the ensures that vision and rarely links the does not refer to and values are posted or displayed for
school’s vision and mission drive many school vision and mission to vision and mission others to access.
mission drive all activities and decisions. school activities and when implementing -School improvement plan (SIP)
school activities decisions. activities and making available
and decisions. important school -Written values and beliefs reflecting
decisions. high academic expectations for all
students
- familiarity of all stakeholders with
vision and mission of school.
-Records of decisions made reflecting
school vision, and mission.

3. The school leader 3. The school leader 3. The school leader 3. The school leader -Ability of School community
communicates and consistently communicates communicates does not make any members to communicate and explain
creates shared the vision, mission, vision, mission, efforts to share the the school vision.
ownership for the values and the school values and the vision and mission -Records of good practices shared
vision, mission, improvement plan to school improvement of the school, its to other schools and the community
values and the school some stakeholders within plan to stakeholders long and short-term reflecting school vision and mission
improvement plan their area of responsibility within their area of goals and the school -Findings from interviews with

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

to all stakeholders and has made efforts to responsibility but improvement plan to stakeholders
within their area of create ownership for them has made no efforts stakeholders.
responsibility in an among stakeholders. to create ownership
exemplary way. for them among

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stakeholders.
 4. The school 4. The school 4. The school leader 4. The school Records of results from situational

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leader coordinates collaboratively carries determines areas does not carry out analysis of the school
a comprehensive out situational analysis of intervention and situational analysis
situational analysis of the school but not improvement based of the school to
of the school comprehensively to on partial situational determine areas of
to determine determine appropriate analysis of the intervention and
appropriate priority areas of intervention and school; improvement
areas of intervention priorities for improvement.
and improvement

5. The school 5. The school leader 5. The school 5. The school Good practices reflecting inclusivity
leader ensures moderately applies leader rarely leader does not Findings from observation and from
maximum inclusivity inclusivity in developing, applies inclusivity apply inclusivity interviews with stakeholders.
in developing, implementing, monitoring in developing, in developing,
implementing, and reviewing the school implementing, implementing and
monitoring and improvement plan. monitoring and reviewing the school
reviewing the school reviewing the school improvement plan.
improvement plan. improvement plan.

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6. The school leader 6. The school leader 6. The school leader 6. The school leader - Minutes of meetings in which items
uses the results of uses the results of M&E rarely uses the does not use the of SIP were discussed
M&E to improve to improve planning, results of M&E in results of M&E in - M & E plan and timeline
planning, school school performance and improving planning, improving planning, - M&E reports on school performance
performance and student learning results school performance school performance and students learning results.
student learning in most cases, but some and student and student learning
results whenever improvement possible. learning results, results.
relevant. with many areas for
improvement.

7. The school 7. The school

7. The school leader
7. The school leader leader rarely uses leader does not use
uses disaggregated
uses disaggregated data disaggregated data disaggregated data to
data to create Disaggregated data available (gender,
to create structures to create structures create structures for
structures for age, disabilities…).
for differentiation with for differentiation differentiation with
differentiation with Report on disaggregated data and
some strategies that with varied varied strategies
varied strategies that observation
meet all stakeholders’ strategies that meet that meet all
meet all stakeholders’
needs (students, teachers, all stakeholders’ stakeholders’ needs

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

needs (students,
parents, …) needs (students, (students, teachers,
teachers, parents, …)
teachers, parents, …) parents, …)

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 8.The school leader 8.The school leader 8.The school leader 8. The school leader - Parents and SGAC feedback in

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always creates consistently creates inconsistently does not create relation to their role in developing the
opportunities for opportunities for parents creates opportunities opportunities school vision, mission and values.
parents to understand to understand the school for parents to for parents to - Existing and operational SGA and
the school vision, vision, mission, values understand the understand the SACs
mission, values and and the educational school vision, school vision, - Reports/minutes of SGACs/SAs
the educational programme. mission, values and mission, values and meetings
programme. the educational the educational
programme. programme.

9. The school leader 9. The school leader 9. The school leader 9. The school leader SIP (Strategic and annual action plan)
effectively establishes establishes accepted establishes accepted does not establish available with allocated budget.
and uses accepted procedures consistently procedures and and use accepted
procedures to uses them to develop inconsistently uses procedures to
develop short- and short and long planning to develop short develop short and
long-term planning but not always through and long planning long planning through
through effective effective allocation of through effective effective allocation of
allocation of resources allocation of resources.
resources. resources.

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10. The school leader 10. The school leader 10. The school 10. The school Vision, mission and values in
in collaboration in collaboration with all leader in rarely leader is in needs conformity with national policies and
with all stakeholders stakeholders consistently demonstrates to demonstrate procedures.
always demonstrates demonstrates adherence adherence to adherence to
adherence to to national policies national policies and national policies and
national policies and and procedures when procedures when procedures when
procedures when developing school vision, developing school developing school
developing school mission and values. vision, mission and vision, mission and
vision, mission and values. values.
values.

Performance Score on this standard.........../40

Excellent Good Developing Unsatisfactory

Areas for improvement:

............................................................................................................................................................................................................

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

............................................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................................

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 Standard Two: Leading learning: The school leader ensures that students have the opportunity for effective teaching and learning that is refined

CPD-DESL
continuously to improve instruction for all students.

Competence levels
Unsatisfactory: [0-
Excellent: [3 -4.0] Good: [2 -3.0[ Developing: [1 -2.0[ Evidence /4
1.0[

1. The School leader 1. The School leader shows 1. The School leader 1. The School leader - book borrowing records
always shows concern concern and ensures consistently shows rarely shows concern - Classroom equipment records
of the provision and effective use of facilities concern and ensures and does not ensure
ensures the effective (books, labs, classrooms effective use of the effective use
use of school equipment) enabling facilities (books, facilities (books,
facilities (books, conducive learning labs, classrooms labs, classrooms
labs, classrooms environment. equipment) enabling equipment) enabling
equipment) enabling conducive learning conducive learning
conducive learning environment. environment.
environment.

2. The School 2. The School leader 2. The School leader 2. The School leader - Lesson observation records.
leader regularly supervises learning rarely supervises rarely supervises - Minutes of feedback discussions
supervises learning activities but consistently learning activities and learning activities
activities and always provides feedback. provides feedback and does not provide
provides constructive with some areas for useful feedback.

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

feedback. improvement,
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3. The School 3. The School leader always 3. The School leader 3. The School leader - Data analysed (dropout rates,
leader always and uses and analyses multiple consistently uses and rarely uses and promotion rates, performance rates)
strategically uses and sources and types of data analyses multiple analyses multiple and ad hoc decisions made
analyses multiple to determine appropriate sources and types of sources and types of - Students assessment plan (formative
sources and types of learning strategies. data to determine data to determine and summative) known by school
data to determine appropriate learning appropriate learning community members.
appropriate learning strategies strategies - Reports on the analysis of students’
strategies academic results available

4. The School leader

4. The school leader 4. The school leader 4. The School leader
rarely implements
is exemplary in some organises extra- does not implement
extra-curricular -List of clubs in the school and reports
organising adequate curricular activities for any extra-curricular
activities for of their activities.
extra-curricular students’ socio-cultural, activities for students’
students’ socio- - Plans of activities during extra-
activities for socio- physical growth, but with socio-cultural and
cultural, physical curricular time.
cultural, and physical some suggestions for physical growth.

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

growth.
growth of students. improvement.

CPD-DESL
 5. The School 5. The School leader 5. The School 5. The School - Findings from observation and

CPD-DESL
leader always and always ensures learning leader consistently leader rarely interview with students and teachers
strategically ensures environment is inclusive, ensures learning ensures learning - Strategies in place to facilitate
that the learning conducive, purposeful environment is environment is learning of students with special
environment is and free from physical inclusive, conducive, inclusive, conducive, needs.
inclusive, conducive, and social threats to all purposeful and free purposeful and free - Girls’ room
purposeful and free learners. from physical and from physical and - Separated toilets
from physical and social harm threats social harm threats to
social threats to all to all learners. all learners.
learners.

6. The school leader 6. The school leader 6. The school leader 6. The school leader Analysed and interpreted data
always ensures that consistently ensures inconsistently fails to ensure that (students ‘progress data, tests results)
data are analyzed, that data are analysed, ensures that data data are analysed, Attendance lists,
interpreted, and used interpreted, and used to are analysed, interpreted, and used
to regularly monitor regularly monitor progress interpreted, and used to regularly monitor
progress toward toward school achievement to regularly monitor progress toward
school achievement goals. progress toward school achievement
goals. school achievement goals.
goals.

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7. The School 7. The School leader 7. The School leader 7. The School Students attendance lists available
leader maintains an consistently sets and has inconsistently set leader needs to set Student registration form available
effective level and implements strategies strategies for high strategies which
implements strategies which secure high standards of student secure high standards
which secure high standards for all students, behaviour and of student and
standards for all behaviour and attendance inspires teachers and inspires teachers
students; behaviour and inspires teachers and student to observe and student leaders
and attendance and student to observe those those standards to observe those
inspires teachers and standards. standards.
students to observe
the standards.

8. The School leader 8. The School leader 8. The School leader 8. The School leader Reports of parents’ involvement
always involves consistently involves inconsistently does not involve (SGACs/SGA),
parents in managing parents in managing involves parents parents in managing invitation letters
and follow up students’ discipline in managing and and following up Findings from interview with parents
students’ discipline follows up students student discipline. and students.
‘discipline. - Communication books/files and
discipline cards

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

- Written rules and regulations for
students

CPD-DESL
 9. The School leader 9. The School leader 9. The School leader 9. The School leader - Strategies for providing students

CPD-DESL
has established a establishes system for does establish system needs to establish career guidance and counselling
system for continuous consistent career guidance for inconsistent a system for career -Testimonies by students and teachers
career guidance and and counselling students career guidance and guidance and
counselling students with different problems. counselling students counselling students
with different with problems. with problems.
problems and
monitors it.

10. The school leader 10. The school leader 10. The school 10. The school leader - Safe girls ‘corner
always maintains consistently maintains a leader inconsistently does not maintain - Testimonies from learners
a safe, respectful, safe, respectful, gender maintains a safe, a safe, respectful,
gender responsive responsive and inclusive respectful, gender gender responsive
and inclusive student- student-centred learning responsive and and inclusive student-
centred learning environment that is inclusive student- centred learning
environment that is focused on equitable centred learning environment that is
focused on equitable opportunities for learning. environment that is focused on equitable
opportunities for focused on equitable opportunities for
learning opportunities for learning.
learning.

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Performance Score on this standard.........../40

Excellent Good Developing Unsatisfactory

Areas for improvement:

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

CPD-DESL
 Standard three: Leading teaching:

CPD-DESL
School leaders support teachers through effective feedback on their teaching and relevant professional development to ensure that quality teaching
and authentic learning experiences meet the needs of all students and are in line with the Competence Based Curriculum.

Competence levels

Excellent: [3 -4.0] Good: [2 -3.0[ Developing: [1 -2.0[ Unsatisfactory: [0-1.0[ Evidence /4

1. The School leader always 1. The School leader 1. The School leader 1. The School leader - A copy of teacher
ensures appropriate teacher consistently ensures inconsistently ensures rarely ensures placement
staffing and placement to appropriate school-based appropriate school- appropriate teacher - Teachers’ files
meet school learning needs teacher staffing and based teacher staffing staffing and placement
including allocating teachers placement to meet school and placement to meet to meet school learning
to teach according to their learning needs including school learning needs needs including
subject specializations. allocating teachers to including allocating allocating teachers to
teach according to their teachers to teach teach according to their
subject specializations. according to their subject specializations.
subject specializations.

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2. The School leader 2. The School leader 2. The School 2. The School leader - Staff induction plan
develops and always develops and consistently leader develops fails to develop Reports on staff induction
coordinates the implements various and inconsistently strategies for staff activities
implementation of a high- strategies for staff implements various induction and - Job‐embedded
quality and year-long staff induction. strategies for staff facilitates professional professional development
induction programme induction and development activities. reports
facilitates professional - Professional Learning
development activities. Communities’ minutes
- Feedback from staff
on quality of induction
activities

3. The School leader 3. The School leader 3. The School leader 3. The School leader Department’s action plan
establishes and always establishes and establishes structure needs to form and and reports.
facilitates structures consistently facilitates (departments) for facilitate departments
(departments, communities structures (departments) better understanding at school for better
of practice) and provides for better understanding of scope and sequence understanding of
opportunities for better of scope and sequence of curriculum scope and sequence of
understanding of scope and of curriculum by teachers by teachers and curriculum by teachers
sequence of curriculum by teaching and consistently inconsistently makes and rarely makes a

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

teachers and continually makes a follow up of a follow up of their follow up.
makes a follow up of their effective work with effective work with
their effective work with appropriate methods. appropriate methods.
appropriate methods.

CPD-DESL
 4. The School leader always 4. The School leader 4. The School leader 4. The School leader - Teaching materials

CPD-DESL
shows concern of the consistently always inconsistently always rarely shows concern available
provision and ensures the shows concern of the shows concern of the of the provision and -Requisitions of teaching
effective use of facilities provision and ensures the provision and ensures ensures the effective use materials reports
(books, labs, classrooms effective use of facilities the effective use of of facilities (books, labs,
equipment) necessary for (books, labs, classrooms facilities (books, labs, classrooms equipment)
teaching and supervises equipment) necessary for classrooms equipment) necessary for teaching
their management. teaching and supervises necessary for teaching and supervises their
their management. and supervises their management.
management

5. The School leader always 5. The School leader 5. The School leader 5. The School leader Teachers’ meetings
facilitates the organization consistently organizes inconsistently organizes rarely organizes agendas
of pedagogical meetings or pedagogical meetings pedagogical meetings pedagogical meetings or Pedagogical meetings&
Communities of Practice or Communities of or Communities of Communities of Practice minutes available
to discuss issues related to Practice to discuss issues Practice to discuss to discuss issues Beginning of terms reports
curriculum implementation, related to curriculum issues related related to curriculum Subject departments
equity and teacher quality implementation, equity to curriculum implementation, equity - Teaching timetable:
and teacher quality implementation, equity and teacher quality developed and shared
and teacher quality Well elaborated timetables
Annual and termly

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

pedagogical calendar
elaborated and shared.
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6. The school leader always 6. The school leader 6. The school leader 6. The school leader Monthly classroom
supervises teaching, consistently supervises inconsistently rarely supervises teaching supervision plan
provides effective feedback teaching, provides supervises teaching, teaching, provides and reports
after lesson observations effective feedback after provides effective effective feedback and
and demonstrates lesson observations and feedback after needs to demonstrate Reports of demonstration
principles and practices of demonstrates principles lesson observations principles and practices lessons conducted
effective, gender responsive and practices of effective, and demonstrates of effective, gender
and inclusive teaching. gender responsive and principles and practices responsive and inclusive
inclusive teaching. of effective, gender teaching.
responsive and
inclusive teaching.

7. The school leader 7. The school leader 7. School leader 7. School leader does Peer evaluation reports
continually uses peer uses peer evaluation inconsistently use not use peer evaluation within departments results
evaluation and students’ and students’ results to peer evaluation and and students’ results for available
results to improve the improve the quality of students’ results for the quality of teaching. Diagnostic assessment
quality of teaching. teaching. the quality of teaching. results available

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

CPD-DESL
CPD-DESL
8. The school leader 8. The school leader 8. The school leader 8. The school leader - Community of Practice
minutes.
develops and coordinates develops and consistently makes some effort needs to develop and
-CPD plan for the school.
professional development coordinates professional to develop and to facilitate professional - Staff meeting agendas
activities of teachers in an development activities. coordinate professional development activities. regarding professional
exemplary way. development activities development
with room for - Records of teachers who
have participated in CPD
improvement.
activities in recent years.

9. The school leader 9. The school leader 9.Theschool leader 9. The school leader - Teachers and Students
shows exemplary practice consistently provides ICT inconsistently provides does not provide ICT can demonstrate familiarity
in making sure that ICT facilities to teachers and ICT facilities to teachers facilities to teachers and with the ICT infrastructure
facilities are accessible for students to carry out and students and students and it used to for teaching and learning
teachers and students and teaching and learning it used to carry out carry out teaching and purposes.
regularly being used to carry activities. teaching and learning learning activities. - Schedules for computer
out teaching and learning activities. labs use for both teachers
activities. and students

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10. The school leader 10.The school leader 10.The school leader 10.The school leader Language management
always puts in place consistently puts in place inconsistently puts needs to put in place policy in school.
effective initiatives innovative initiatives in place innovative innovative initiatives
to enhance language to enhance language initiatives to enhance to enhance language
proficiency in English as proficiency especially language proficiency proficiency especially
medium of instruction. English skills. especially English skills. English skills.

Performance Score on this standard.........../40

Excellent Good Developing Unsatisfactory

Areas for improvement:

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

CPD-DESL
 Standard four: Managing the school as an organization: Effective school leaders manage the organization, operations, and facilities in ways that

CPD-DESL
maximize the use of resources to promote a safe, efficient, legal, and effective learning environment.
Competence levels
Excellent: [3 -4.0] Good: [2 -3.0[ Developing: [1 -2.0[ Unsatisfactory: [0-1.0[ Evidence /4

1. The school leader 1. The school leader 1. The school leader 1. The school leader - Detailed budget
always involves the consistently involves inconsistently involves does not involve school available
school community in school community to school community to community to play an - Findings from
the elaboration and play an appropriate play an appropriate role appropriate role in the interviews with all
monitoring of the school role in the elaboration in the elaboration and elaboration and monitoring stakeholders involved in
budget. and monitoring of the monitoring of the school of the school budget. budget elaboration
school budget. budget.

2. The School leader 2. The School leader 2. The School leader 2. The School leader does - Financial documents
always allocates and consistently allocates inconsistently allocates not allocate and utilizes (use of financial books,
utilizes the school and consistently utilizes and utilizes school budget school budget to school monthly financial
budget to identify school school resources to to school priorities in line priorities in line with the reports) are available
priorities in line with the school priorities in line with the school’s vision, school’s vision, values, goals - Generating
school’s vision, values, with the school’s vision, values, goals and targets and targets and needs to income projects are
goals and targets and values, goals and targets and mobilizes additional mobilize additional funds implemented
mobilizes additional and mobilizes additional funds that improve that improve teaching and - Sources of additional
funds that contribute to funds that improve teaching and learning. learning. funds available

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

the quality of teaching teaching and learning. School budget and
and learning. expenditure reports.
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- Educational policies,
3. The School leader 3. The School leader 3. The School leader 3. The School leader regulations and
always complies with consistently avails and inconsistently avails and inconsistently avails and procedures.
relevant educational implements educational implements educational implements educational
policies, regulations, policies, regulations and policies, regulations and policies, regulations and
guidelines and guidelines in the school. guidelines in the school. guidelines in the school.
procedures in the school.
- Staff performance
4. The School leader 4. The School 4. The School leader 4. The School leader does appraisal forms.
always implements leader consistently inconsistently not implement teacher - Staff Professional
teacher and staff implements implements teacher and and staff evaluation Development plan
evaluation systems teacher and staff staff evaluation systems systems in accordance
in accordance with evaluation systems in accordance with with policy, procedure,
policy, procedure, and in accordance with policy, procedure, and and legal requirements for
legal requirements for policy, procedure, and legal requirements for professional growth.
professional growth. legal requirements for professional growth.
professional growth.

5. The School leader is 5. The School leader 5. The School leaders are 5. The School leader is not Findings from
always present, visible is consistently inconsistently present, present, visible and actively observation and
and actively monitors the present, visible and visible and actively monitors the learning and interviews with

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

learning and teaching actively monitors the monitors the learning and teaching environments. students, teachers and
environment. learning and teaching teaching environments parents
environments

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6. The School leader 6. The School leader 6. The School leader 6. The school leader rarely School records available
always ensures consistently ensures attempts to ensure ensures that school records and electronically kept
that school records that school records that school records and documentation are
(School infrastructure, and documentation are and documentation are properly, accurately and
equipment, etc.) and properly, accurately and properly, accurately and confidently maintained using
documentation are confidently maintained confidently maintained technology.
properly, accurately and using technology. using technology.
confidently maintained
using technology.

7. The School leader 7. The School leader 7. The School leader 7. The school leader rarely Code of conduct
always implements the consistently implements inconsistently implements implements the code of available.
code of conduct among the code of conduct the code of conduct conduct among the school Staff turnover records
school staff. among school staff. among school staff. staff.

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8. The school leader 8. The school leader 8. The school leader 8. The school leader needs Records of reports
continually develops a consistently develops a develops a system for to develop a system for
system for maintaining system for maintaining maintaining records, maintaining records, rarely
records and adheres records, adheres to inconsistently adheres adheres to deadlines
to all deadlines when all timelines when to all timelines when timelines when submitting
submitting reports, uses submitting reports, submitting reports, uses reports, uses technology
technology to maintain uses technology to technology to maintain to maintain accurate
accurate records and maintain accurate accurate records and records and maintains
maintains confidentiality. records and maintains maintains confidentiality. confidentiality.
confidentiality.

9. The school leader 9. The school leader 9. The school leader rarely 9.The school leader rarely - Changes implemented
always provides consistently provides provides support for does not provide support in the school.
support for change support for change change efforts within the provides efforts for change - Meetings minutes
efforts within the efforts within the school, deals effectively within the school, deals about changes to be
school, deals effectively school, deals effectively with resistance and effectively with resistance implemented
with resistance and with resistance and ensures wide support for and ensures wide support - Findings from
ensures wide support ensures wide support necessary changes within for necessary changes within observation and
for necessary changes for necessary changes the school. the school. interviews with the

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

within the school. within the school. school leader, students
and teachers

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 10. The School leader 10. The School 10. The School leader

CPD-DESL
always ensures leader consistently inconsistently ensures 10. The School leader does
individuals’ staff ensures individuals individuals staff not ensure individuals staff
Findings from interviews
accountabilities staff accountabilities accountabilities are clearly accountabilities are clearly
with school staff and
are clearly defined, are clearly defined, defined, understood, defined, understood, agreed
students.
understood, agreed to understood, agreed to agreed to and subject to and subject to rigorous
and subject to rigorous and subject to rigorous to rigorous review and review and evaluation.
review and evaluation. review and evaluation. evaluation.

Performance Score on this standard.........../40

Excellent Good Developing Unsatisfactory

Areas for improvement:

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.............................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Standard Five: Working with Parents and the Wider Community: Effective school leaders practice two-way communications and use
appropriate oral, written, and electronic communication and collaboration skills to accomplish school and system goals by building and
maintaining relationships with students, teachers, parents, and community.
Performance Levels
Excellent: [3 -4.0] Good: [2 -3.0[ Developing: [1 -2.0[ Unsatisfactory: [0-1.0[ Evidence /4
1. The School leader 1. The School leader 1. The School leader 1. The School leader does - Strategies for
continually elaborates consistently elaborates inconsistently elaborates not elaborate strategies encouraging students’
strategies to encourage strategies to encourage strategies to encourage to encourage parents, attendance are in place
parents, teachers, parents, teachers, parents, teachers, teachers, students and - Records of students’
students and the students and external students and external external environment to school attendance are
local environment to environment to increase environment to increase increase students’ school shared with parents and
increase students’ school students’ school students’ school attendance. teachers.
attendance. attendance. attendance.

2. The School leader 2. The School leader 2. The School leader 2. The School leader needs - Home-school
always facilitates consistently creates inconsistently creates two- to create two- way exchange communication form/
the communication two- way exchange way exchange between between families and school book.
between families and between families and families and school that that involves information - Parents call system in
school that involves school that involves involves information sharing and opportunities place
information sharing and information sharing sharing and opportunities for schools and families to
opportunities for schools and opportunities for for schools and families to learn about each other on a - SGA and SGAC agendas

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

and families to learn schools and families to learn about each other on regular basis (Minutes reports are
about each other on a learn about each other a regular basis available).
regular basis. on a regular basis

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 3. The school leader 3. The school 3. The school leader 3. The school leader does - Evidence of cooperation

CPD-DESL
always develops leader consistently inconsistently develops not develop relationships between schools and
relationships with develops relationships relationships with with educational other business and
educational stakeholders, with educational educational stakeholders, stakeholders, community education partners
community groups, stakeholders, community groups, groups, businesses and - Support provided by
businesses and other community groups, businesses and other other educational providers external stakeholders’
educational providers businesses and other educational providers to participate in school reports
to participate in school educational providers to participate in school activities to improve
activities to improve to participate in school activities to improve teaching and learning.
teaching and learning. activities to improve teaching and learning.
teaching and learning.

4. The school leader 4. The school 4. The school leader 4. The school leader does Strategies in place
continually strengthens leader consistently inconsistently strengthens not strengthen the ability to monitor parents’
the ability of parents strengthens the ability the ability of schools and of schools and parents to participation in
to support their of schools and parents parents to support their support their children’s homework and its
children’s learning and to support their children’s learning and learning and development impact on students’
development outcomes. children’s learning and development outcomes. outcomes. performance
development outcomes.

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5.The school leader 5. The school leader 5.The school leader 5.The school leaders does - Findings from
always keeps all parents consistently keeps inconsistently keeps not keep parents informed interviews with parents
informed of upcoming parents informed parents informed of of upcoming events in a - Programs and events
events in a variety of upcoming events upcoming events in a variety of ways, including (meetings, school open
of ways, including in a variety of ways, variety of ways, including regular meetings and day) involving parents,
regular meetings and including regular regular meetings and information sharing. other institutions and
information sharing meetings and information sharing. the community are well
information sharing. implemented.
- Award certificates
of achievement and
appreciation schedules.

6. The School leader 6. The School leader 6. The School leader 6. The School leader does Agenda minutes and
always establishes a continually establishes inconsistently establishes not establish a psycho-social proposed plan of action
psycho-social support a psycho-social support a psycho-social support support system among in place
system among school system among school system among school school community members
community members community members community members (Assistance in family
(Assistance in family (Assistance in family (Assistance in family problems, participation in
problems, participation in problems, participation problems, participation in teachers’ family events...)
teacher’s family events...) in teachers’ family teachers’ family events...)

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

events...)

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 7. The school leader 7. The school leader 7. The school leader 7. The school leader - The school participates

CPD-DESL
continually participates consistently participates inconsistently participates does not participate in in the community
in community work in community work in community work and community work and development
and initiates activities and initiates activities initiates activities aiming initiates activities aiming activities(reports)
aiming at engaging aiming at engaging at engaging in professional at engaging in professional - A well-established
in professional in professional development with other development with other school program to
development with other development with other schools. schools. support community
schools. schools.

8. The school leader 8. The school leader 8. The school leader 8. The school leader does - Open door policy
always provides consistently provides inconsistently provides not provide opportunities - Evidence of school-
opportunities for parents opportunities for opportunities for parents for parents and community initiated parenting
and community to parents and community and community to to participate in the whole sessions and home visits
participate in the to participate in the participate in the whole life of the school and (cleanliness, education
activities of the school whole life of the school life of the school and decisions that affect social
and collaborate in taking and decisions that affect decisions that affect social and academic progress of
decisions that affect social and academic and academic progress of their children’s progress.
social and academic progress of their their children.
progress of their children.

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

children.
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9. The school leader 9. The school leader 9. The school leader 9.The school leader does There are joint activities
continually identifies consistently identifies inconsistently identifies not identify and integrate with other schools and
and integrate resources and integrate resources and integrate resources resources and services institutions.
and services from the and services from and services from the from the community to School-community
community to strengthen the community to community to strengthen strengthen school programs. joint projects (fences,
school programs. strengthen school school programs. construction of
programs. classrooms, etc.)

10. The school leader 10. The school leader 10. The school leader 10. The school leader does Homework is regularly
continually ensure that consistently ensure that inconsistently ensure that not ensure that teachers given
teachers and parents are teachers and parents teachers and parents are and parents are working
working together to help are working together working together to help together to help students
students with homework to help students with students with homework with homework and other
and other curriculum- homework and other and other curriculum- curriculum-related activities.
related activities. curriculum-related related activities.
activities.

Performance Score on this standard.........../40

Continuous Professional Development Diploma in Effective School Leadership

Excellent Good Developing Unsatisfactory
Areas for improvement:
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Appendix 3: Multiple-Choice Questions for Module 1

Module 1, Unit 1: Overview of School Leadership

1. Which of the following statements related to leadership and management is

correct?

A. Good school leaders perform both leadership and management tasks.

B. Good management is a condition for good leadership.
C. Good leadership skills are more important than good management skills.
D. The standards for effective school leadership refer to leadership and not to
management.

2. Which of the following statements related to leadership and management is not

correct?

A. Leaders establish the direction of the school, whereas managers focus more
on daily operations.
B. Leaders focus more on the long term, whereas managers focus more on the
short term.
C. The development of the SIP is an example of a leadership task
D. The monitoring of the implementation of the SIP is an example of a
management task
E. The role of a school leader can be clearly divided into leadership and
management components.

3. Which of the following statements related to primary and secondary processes

is not correct?

A. Monitoring teaching quality is an example of a primary process.

B. Primary processes are processes that related directly to teaching and learning.
C. Making sure that the school infrastructure is of good quality is a secondary
process.
D. The primary processes correspond more with leadership and the secondary
processes with management.
E. School leaders should focus on the primary processes.

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4. Which of the following is not a key characteristic of leadership?

A. Being open to new ideas and criticism

B. Being open-minded and ready to learn from others
C. Being able to influence others
D. Having a formal assignment as a leader
E. Being driven by clear personal and professional values

5. Which of the following statements related to school leadership models is correct?

A. School leaders should follow the participative and distributive leadership

model
B. School leaders should follow a situational leadership model
C. School leaders should start from a transformational leadership model and
move to a managerial leadership model
D. School leaders should start from a managerial leadership model and move to
a transformational leadership model
E. School leaders should try to adopt an instructional leadership model

6. Which of the following statements related to school leadership styles is not

correct?

A. A coaching style of leadership is characterised by high levels of support and

high levels of direction
B. The optimal leadership style depends on the development level of the
followers
C. Ideally, you move from a delegating leadership style to a directing leadership
style
D. Teams with low levels of competence need a more directive leadership style
E. A group that has been working together for a long time will benefit from
delegative leadership style

7. Which of the following aspects is not part of the school leadership standard
Managing the School as an Organisation?

A. Manage the school resources efficiently and effectively in a way that benefits

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student learning
B. Securing additional funds for the school
C. Make regular inspections of the school to ensure that school premises and
equipment are being used properly
D. involve all stakeholders to develop an annual budget plan for the school
E. conducting regular lesson observations to make sure that teachers implement
the CBC.

8. Which of the following aspects in not part of the school leadership standard
“Working with Parents and the Wider community”?

A. Meet parents and discuss learners’ progress, results and conduct

B. Take initiatives to involve a wide group of parents and wider community
members in the school
C. Promote income generating activities for the school
D. Organize events to explain to parents how they can support their children
with their education
E. Organize literacy classes for parents

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Module 1, Unit 2: Gender and Inclusiveness in School

Leadership
9. Which of the following statements on gender is not correct?

A. Gender parity is about equality in terms of numbers and proportions of girls

and boys
B. Gender equality means treating all learners the same way
C. In a gender equity approach, girls may need additional support compared to
boys
D. In a gender equality approach, average learning outcomes between boys and
girls can still be different.
E. In a gender equity approach, average learning outcomes between boys and
girls can still be different

10. Which of the following statements is not a gender stereotype?

A. Girls are better in languages than boys

B. Boys are better in science than girls
C. Men should provide for their wives
D. Women are responsible for the education of their children
E. Girls can have children, whereas men cannot.

11. Which of the following statements related to gender in Rwandan schools is not
correct?

A. Dropout rates in primary and secondary education are similar for boys and
girls.
B. Most dropouts take place at the transition from primary to secondary
education.
C. The higher a girl’s level of education, the lower the chance that she has begun
childbearing in their teens.
D. When girls drop out, it more often means the end of their education,
compared to boys.
E. Girls are less likely to repeat than boys, both in primary and in secondary
education.

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12. Which of the following statements related to girls’ rooms is not correct?

A. A boarding school for girls does not need a girl’s room.

B. A girl’s room should be a safe space where girls can get advice from a mentor
teacher or matron
C. A girl’s room should contain access to safe water and appropriate sanitation
facilities
D. A girl’s room can help reducing absenteeism among girls.
E. All the statements are correct.

13. Which of the following is not an aspect of a gender responsive pedagogy?

A. The number of questions asked to girls and boys

B. Asking questions of similar difficulty levels to boys and girls
C. Making sure that boys can support a girl in case she needs support
D. Making sure that examples used during the lesson involve boys and girls
E. Giving boys and girls equal opportunities to become a class monitor

14. Which of the following do not reinforce gender stereotypes during teaching and
learning?

A. Asking more difficult questions to boys;

B. Believing in all learners that they can achieve the learning outcomes
C. Giving more opportunities to boys to solve problems at the blackboard
D. Believing that boys are more able to do maths and science than girls.
E. Using examples that are more appealing to boys than to girls.

15. Which of the following is not a part of a gender responsive school?

A. ensure that girls and boys have equal access to school resources such as
textbooks
B. ensure that the school has a policy in place to deal with sexual harassment.
C. ensure there are separate and adequate toilets and hygienic facilities for boys
and girls
D. plan activities to promote the participation of girls in science and maths.

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E. discuss with parents about the need to reduce early marriage and teenage
pregnancy.
F. don’t distinguish between boys and girls when reporting exam results

16. Which of the following statements related to inclusive education is not correct?

A. Inclusive education means making sure all learners are present in school.
B. Inclusive education means that learners with special education needs can go
to a specialised school
C. Inclusive education means that all learners are actively engaged in the lessons
D. Inclusive education means that all learners are given the support they need
to learn
E. Inclusive education is the responsibility of all teachers in a school

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Unit 3: working with parents and the wider community

17. Which of the following statements related to the involvement of parents and the
wider community in the school is not correct?

A. The main reason to involve parents and the wider community is to raise
additional funds for the school
B. Involving parents and the wider community can reduce absenteeism and
dropouts among learners
C. Even illiterate parents can support their children in their education
D. Schools can serve as centres for community learning events
E. High performing schools in Rwanda tend to have more involved parents

18. Which of the following statements related to the involvement of parents and the
wider community in the school is not correct?

A. It is not necessary to involve all parents as some of them are not interested in
their children’s education.
B. The main purpose of involving parents is to raise funds for the school.
C. It is the school’s responsibility to help parents to support their children with
their education.
D. Parents who are illiterate cannot do much to support their children at school.
E. The SGAC meetings are the best instrument to involve parents in the school.
F. A child’s education is the sole responsibility of schools.
G. Many parents are illiterate and can’t really do much to support the education
of their children

19. Which of the following is not one of the six types of community and parental
involvement that schools can use according to Epstein’s model?

A. Parenting.
B. Communicating
C. Volunteering
D. Learning at Home
E. Fundraising

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20. Which of the following is not an official role ((Official Gazette n° 31 of 30/07/2012)
of the SGAC?

A. to formulate the vision of the school in accordance with its mission;

B. to appoint and remove members of the School General Assembly Committee;
C. to submit meeting reports to the Sector authorities with a copy thereof to the
Executive Secretary of the Cell in which the school is located;
D. to develop the School Improvement Plan of the school
E. to approve the annual budget of the school;

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