Institutional development

Institutional support

Overview	This page looks at the needs of key institutions upon which the effectiveness of the change will hinge. Needs analyses of all the institutions should be conducted. African countries are in a frotunate position in that other countries have been though this process in the last half century, many quite recently and therefore much of the needed capacity development could take the form of study tours and related tasks. This page looks at the likely needs of a number of the institutions resonsible for the different tasks in the reform The process of institutional support is often helped by the development of gudance documents that clarify the roles and functions of institutions. Many countries, for example, are using teacher standards and related teacher education standards to providing objective (internationally accepted) benchmarks against which institutional performance can be measured

The technical working group and its sub-committees	Study tours for Working Group members would broaden their horizons. This would allow the leadership and technical working group specialists to update themselves of what happens elsewhere in the reform of the secondary curriculum and consult on similar reforms in other countries. Such a study tour could for example visit South Africa which has so fargone further down the road to expansion than any other African country. Another study tour could visit selected countries in Asia (for example South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, or Thailand). Another could be planned to selected European countries that could provide relevant best practices (for example Scotland, England, the Netherlands and France and, for a rather different perspective, one or more of the Nordic countries)
Curriculum development	In addition to study tours, it is likely that curriculum development institutions will require some external technical assistance both at the level of the curriculum framework and at subject levels
Examinations and assessment	The examinations and assessment institutions will find themselves pioneering a number of techniques that may be new to them and to the country. It will experience a rapid inflation in numbers of examinees of a wide range of ability. These will require new techniques of assessment. Assessment will move from testing largely knowledge and understanding to the assessment also of application and skills. A revised computerised system for handling the process may be needed. The initial step should be a capacity needs assessment for which external technical assistance will probably be needed.
Teacher education	The expansion will demand a rapid increase in the numbers of secondary-competent teachers. These will have to come from both intial training programmes and from the existing teaching force through retraining programmes. This is a complex issue that demands a detailed study with recommendations at an early stage in the expansion process. The study should address short term needs to support the expansion and the longer term needs to considerthe long term maintenance of quality within expenditure constraints
Teacher support in the field	Easing in a new curriculum, particularly if it involves major changes in both methodology and subject matter, requires a comprehensive support system.
The inspectorate	The new kind of secondary teaching and perhaps new kinds of school will require a system for maintaining quality. Documents such as National Teacher Standards and National Standards for Schools are useful for providing systematic intruments for assessing teacher and school performance. If these are not in place then consideration should be given to developing them. Outside technical assistance will be useful.
EMIS	A review of the effectiveness of the service may be needed, upon which a strategy for improving it can be built. Accurate information is a crucial element in a major expansion programme.
Research and monitoring	Links between Ministies of Education and Education Faculties are not always perticularly well developed and contract research done by universities for ministries is still uncommon. The expansion can be seen as a means of addressing the weakness of this link. The capacity of educational researchers generally may require assessing and addressing.
Strengthening school management and administration	To increase efficiency at the school level it is important to strengthen school management to include implementation of effective staff support and appraisal schemes. One consideration may be the idea of professional body for teachers. Such a body (with earned membership reflected in pay packets) could stimulate professional develop opportunities for teachers. This implies teacher appraisal which in turn requires the development of Teacher Standards. School administration will have to carry extra burdens and require new skills. As the intake expands it will include an increasingly wide ability range. This will require new kinds of subject choice, setting in ability groups, catering for special needs, developing inclusve practices, reforming assessment and reporting procedures, new timetabling skils, etc. This is a considerable administrative challenge if the schol is to run smoothly
Training for textbook development	This includes training for authors of textbook and teaching and learning materials, as well as for technicians for lay-out and graphic artists. This type of training is typically carried out in-country and on-the-job and under the guidance of experts over a period of time. Commercial publishers should ideally be involved with this type of training and it is expected that they will provide a substantial part of the funds for it.