Leadership Role of School Superintendents in Saudi Arabia

This study examines the practice of school superintendents in Saudi Arabia in five roles as seen by education supervisors within school district offices. The purpose of the study is to examine the leadership of school superintendents in these five roles: work environment, rules and regulations, implementation of technology, accountability, and professional development of the education supervisors in school districts. The study sample consists of 276 education supervisors working in 30 school districts. The study reveals that the respondents (education supervisors) perceived leadership roles enacted to a low degree for the five roles. The final results show that school superintendents’ leadership needs to be developed in order to provide a high quality of education, by improving the selection of superintendents and offering better training in the five roles. The Ministry of Education should decentralize major decisions to school superintendents so that they can be active in leading change and perform leadership roles in their school districts

Achieving Competitive Advantage in Human Resource Management in General School District of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia

The general school district of Riyadh is one of largest in the country of (45) school districts in Saudi Arabia. The school districts play an important roles in the development of education, therefore the objective of the study is to examine the roles of the management in the school districts to see if it is achieving competitive advantage. After the analysis of (226) respondents , the study revealed  that there are three of nine dimensions of human resource management in the study with low degree.in  recruiting human resources, motivation of human resources, services and public relations ( mean of 2.35 of 5.00), and moderate degree in salaries, work analysis, description and design, performance assessment, planning of  human recourses, and training and developing of human resources ( mean of 2.70 of 5.00), But the degree of overall of these roles of human resource management is blow the average(mean =2.53). The result of the study indicate that the General School District of Riyadh is not in a position to be  competitive in human resource management with other school districts in Saudi Arabia or with  the international level. The school district of Riyadh needs to put great efforts in development of management of human resources to achieve competitive advantages by training school district superintendent and human resource manager. The study has implication for other school districts in Saudi Arabia and for many developing countries with centralized system in education. It also highlighted the challenges facing  lack of regulation related to human resources management, and the absence of many of human resources management the lack of integrated management of competent human resources, lack of specialists in human resource management, and the most important is deficiencies in many of the functions of human resources and lack of incentives and training. Keywords: human resource management, competitive advantage, school district, Saudi Arabia developing countries

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination modelling for safe surgery to save lives: data from an international prospective cohort study

Background: Preoperative SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could support safer elective surgery. Vaccine numbers are limited so this study aimed to inform their prioritization by modelling. Methods: The primary outcome was the number needed to vaccinate (NNV) to prevent one COVID-19-related death in 1 year. NNVs were based on postoperative SARS-CoV-2 rates and mortality in an international cohort study (surgical patients), and community SARS-CoV-2 incidence and case fatality data (general population). NNV estimates were stratified by age (18-49, 50-69, 70 or more years) and type of surgery. Best- and worst-case scenarios were used to describe uncertainty. Results: NNVs were more favourable in surgical patients than the general population. The most favourable NNVs were in patients aged 70 years or more needing cancer surgery (351; best case 196, worst case 816) or non-cancer surgery (733; best case 407, worst case 1664). Both exceeded the NNV in the general population (1840; best case 1196, worst case 3066). NNVs for surgical patients remained favourable at a range of SARS-CoV-2 incidence rates in sensitivity analysis modelling. Globally, prioritizing preoperative vaccination of patients needing elective surgery ahead of the general population could prevent an additional 58 687 (best case 115 007, worst case 20 177) COVID-19-related deaths in 1 year. Conclusion: As global roll out of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination proceeds, patients needing elective surgery should be prioritized ahead of the general population