School Governance: Trends and Challenges

NETWORKING revolves around four main activities:

1. Collaboration on themes of common interest

Member institutions collaborate on research and training activities on themes of common interest, and several institutions have signed memoranda of understanding on a bilateral basis. In addition, several members have co-operated in an IIEP/UNESCO Paris sponsored project on Improving Teacher Supervision and Support Services for Basic Education. They carried out national diagnoses of supervision including in-depth examinations of the actual operation of school supervision in selected districts, and discussed their findings at a regional seminar in 1997. The national diagnoses and a comparative analysis are currently being published. The project has enabled member institutions to enrich their training materials and strategies in supervision. Other joint activities include the publication of a Newsletter and the organization of the annual meeting.
A new collaborative research programme on successful schools in which nine members are involved, focuses on the question which particular management interventions have made schools successful and examines how these interventions can become more general practice. Each institute will undetake a few case-studies of particularly successful schools.

2. Exchange of Information among member institutions

>Most information is exchanged via the ANTRIEP Newsletter, published twice a year, it presents thematic, in-depth articles on issue of common interest, and news about activities in the member institutions. Themes already tackled include decentralization, teacher supervision and support, and policy reforms in primary education. Research reports, training materials, course design prototypes and other materials are also exchanged on a bilateral basis.

3. Organization of an annual meetings

This activity is crucial to the effective functioning of the network. It enables professionals to learn from each other in a systematic way and facilitates the implementation of various training and research activities. Each meeting lasts about four days and takes the form of a short capacity building seminar on a central theme (chosen at the previous meeting). The venue for the meeting rotates between members. The first meeting hosted in New Delhi (INDIA) by NIEPA in December 1995 had as its theme ‘Decentralized Management of Primary Education and Capacity Building’. The second meeting, organized in Seoul by the Korean Educational Development Institute in May 1997, examined issues related to ‘Improving teacher supervision and support services’. "The third meeting, hosted by the Sri Lanka National Institute of Education in December 1998, debated on :' Improving schol management: the role of the head teacher" ( September 2000). The fifth meeting took place in Kuala Lumpur, in July 2002. The Institut Aminiddin Baki was the local host. Its theme was : "School Evaluation for Quality Improvement."
The sixthe ANTRIEP meeting was held at Diliman, Quezon City, The Philippines in July 2004.The ANTRIEP meeting was preceded by a seminar on "Improving School Management : Learning from Successful Schools". The event was hosted by South Asian Ministers of Education Organisation, Regional centre for Educational Innovations and Technology ( SEAMEO-INNOTEC).

4. Staff exchange programmes

Initially in the form of short study visits, this exchange could lead to more active mutual involvement. Such visits should enable staff to gain inside knowledge of another institution and country. Visits will enable the visitor and host to exchange and discuss research results and take part in each other’s training and research activities. Eventually, member institutions could act as nodal points for the respective countries in order to facilitate the exchange of professionals from a spectrum of organizations.