OEM 201 : EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP---THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF TANZANIA.

Q. Identify  different  skills  that  you   consider   most  important  in   educational   management  and  give  an   example   to   each.

ANSWER:

Planning Skills

Planning involves estimating future conditions and circumstances and making decisions based on these estimations about what work is to be done by those involved in the management of the educational sector. What heads of educational institutions need to understand is the rapid transformation in the education sector. In achieving a sustainable system inline with this transformation, plans need to be long term and should therefore, be reviewed periodically.

Dan Power in his article what are planning skills suggested that planning skills should be developed in relation to the following seven competency areas:

1.     Analyzing and interpreting data and situations

2.     Diagnosing problems and identifying relevant causal factors

3.     Predicting and forecasting

4.     Goal setting and identifying possible courses of action

5.     Evaluating and comparing possible courses of action

6.     Communicating

7.     Implementing actions and monitoring them.

Planning in educational institutions should involve making arrangements for human resources such as the number of students that should be admitted, the number of teachers needed, the financial standing of the institution, the culture that should be adopted as well as the aims and functions of the educational institution. 

Controlling Skills

An efficient way of controlling performance of both students and lectures is by having system that records their attendance. This system can be in the form of a bio-metric device which registers the finger prints of both the staff and the students or a computerized system in which they clock in on assuming duty and clock out at the end of the day.

Training and Coaching Skills

·        Training Skills

Training is the process of helping individuals to acquire knowledge and skills in order for a person to carry out specific tasks or a job. Academic and non-academic staff of educational institutions need training to improve on their existing skills. The academic staff of educational institutions need to engage in systematic Continuing Professional Education (CPE) in order to maintain, improve, update and broaden their knowledge and skills and  personal qualities required in their professional careers.

·        Coaching Skills

Coaching involves providing feedback and support for staff to help them improve their performance in their role. In America for example, students are attached to a coach who handles students that have low IQ. These students are given individual attention so that they can catch up with the other of their classmates.