Proposal for competitive examination for the position of principal
The whole country is in the peak period of arranging and streamlining the network of educational and training institutions, with the goal of completion before August 30.
After the arrangement, two arrangement models are applied, including large-scale single-level schools (with branches and school sites) and inter-level general schools. In which, each school only arranges one principal instead of maintaining the number of principals corresponding to the schools before the merger.
Hanoi City has issued guidelines and specific criteria for selecting and appointing principals and vice principals after arranging schools. In many localities, provincial leaders said that the biggest difficulty and obstacle is the stage of arranging and assigning personnel.
Mr. Nguyen Van Luc - former teacher of Trinh Phong Secondary School, Dien Khanh, Khanh Hoa said that to successfully implement this arrangement of educational institutions, teachers are the decisive force, in which the role of the head - the Principal is very important.
First of all, according to teacher Luc, the principal must be a person who is truly dedicated, talented, has strategic vision, and has quick and correct decisions. The principal must ensure 3 requirements in the current period: Being a good leader; a good manager; a talent manager.
The principal is the'soul' of the school. It is necessary to recruit the right people so that teachers and students can be happy" - Mr. Luc said.
Therefore, to choose principals who dare to think, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, teacher Luc proposed to organize a competitive examination for this title. Teacher Luc analyzed that when principals are selected through competitive examinations, teachers will surely be convinced, because they have chosen people worthy of being the leader, the driver of the education ferry to the destination.
Only in this way can the talents of leaders, managers, school administration and democracy in schools become more and more substantive" - Mr. Luc analyzed and clarified his point of view.
In addition to competitive examinations, to have fair competition, teacher Luc believes that it is necessary to take votes of confidence once a year for principals and vice principals.
If for two consecutive years principals and vice principals only have confidence of less than 50%, then principals and vice principals should resign or be dismissed to find more worthy people" - teacher Luc said.
Need to foster and improve management capacity for principals
Ms. Nguyen Thi Viet Nga - Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation in charge of Hai Phong City, Member of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture and Society, said that for management officials, the selection of heads after mergers must be based on qualities, management capacity, prestige and the ability to operate a large-scale educational institution; it should not only be based on seniority or the old unit.
Criteria, procedures and selection results need to be made public, limiting the psychology of comparison and disunity" - Ms. Nga said.
Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh - Former Director of the Department of Vocational Education, Ministry of Education and Training, said that the success of the arrangement and streamlining of the network of educational institutions this time cannot only be measured by the number of reduced focal points or the number of streamlined staff. The important thing is whether the quality of teaching and learning is improved or not, whether teachers work more effectively, whether students are more advanced, whether parents are more satisfied and whether schools operate more transparently and effectively. That is management based on output results, instead of just management of input and processes.
Therefore, along with the merger decision, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to build a management capacity framework for school principals after the merger and implement a compulsory training program on change management before implementing the arrangement" - Mr. Vinh proposed.
In addition, Mr. Vinh proposed that when the scale and structure of schools change, the management model must also shift from administrative management to modern management in the direction of increasing autonomy, increasing accountability and granting more decision-making power to schools according to the School-Based Management (SBM) model that is being successfully applied by many education systems.
