Making the Connection: Impact of School Leadership, Social Mobilization and Community Involvement on School Performance

It is a common perception that performance of any organization depends on the vision of its leadership; this is leadership that enables the organization to make a difference. In Pakistan, school leadership is criticized that it has not been trained to meet the challenges of 21st  century. Governments have launched different policies and plans to generate the awareness among the mass about their role in school education and make it clear that leadership’s social mobilization and community involvement is necessary to achieve the desired goals for best survival in the present era. To involve the community in school management, concept of school management committees (SMCs) was introduced but the main obstacle to greater success remains the lack of acceptance and comprehension of the concept at both the community as well as school level (National Education Policy, 2009). Government of the Punjab also conducts workshops and trainings for school leaders to train them for social mobilization in the community and to involve community effectively in the school management to accelerate the performance of the school. The objectives of the study were to explore the contribution of school leadership, social mobilization and community involvement towards school performance and to find the best predictor of school performance. The sample for the study was the school headmasters/principals who have SMCs and have been trained by Government of the Punjab in social mobilization and to work with community and school. A self-developed questionnaire was used for the study to explore the best predictor among school leadership, social mobilization and community involvement of school performance. Multiple regressions were applied and it was found that community involvement was the best predictor of school performance

Making the Connection: Impact of School Leadership, Social Mobilization and Community Involvement on School Performance

It is a common perception that performance of any organization depends on the vision of its leadership; this is leadership that enables the organization to make a difference. In Pakistan, school leadership is criticized that it has not been trained to meet the challenges of 21st  century. Governments have launched different policies and plans to generate the awareness among the mass about their role in school education and make it clear that leadership’s social mobilization and community involvement is necessary to achieve the desired goals for best survival in the present era. To involve the community in school management, concept of school management committees (SMCs) was introduced but the main obstacle to greater success remains the lack of acceptance and comprehension of the concept at both the community as well as school level (National Education Policy, 2009). Government of the Punjab also conducts workshops and trainings for school leaders to train them for social mobilization in the community and to involve community effectively in the school management to accelerate the performance of the school. The objectives of the study were to explore the contribution of school leadership, social mobilization and community involvement towards school performance and to find the best predictor of school performance. The sample for the study was the school headmasters/principals who have SMCs and have been trained by Government of the Punjab in social mobilization and to work with community and school. A self-developed questionnaire was used for the study to explore the best predictor among school leadership, social mobilization and community involvement of school performance. Multiple regressions were applied and it was found that community involvement was the best predictor of school performance

Role of Academic Leadership in Change Management for Quality in Higher Education in Pakistan

Currently, higher education is performing multi tasks for the development of a nation. It prepares and trains the work force for the 21st century. Higher education has broaden the fields of knowledge due to which different changes are occurring in every field of life as well as in the field of higher education and invites the academic leaders to integrate these changes and innovations for effective working in the global age. These changes have created many challenges to academic leaders, now academic leaders are responsible to trace these changes and add them for excellence in higher education. In some situations, academic leaders feel pressure as change management is necessary for advancement, while on the other hand local and cultural norms create some hurdles for them. It is up to academic leaders to motivate faculty members to accept these changes for the improvement of the standards of higher education and also prepare the faculty members to integrate these changes for fitness in the globalization. The objectives of the present study were to know the opinion of the faculty members about the change management and role of academic leaders to accept this change and implement for the betterment of higher education. The sample for the study was the faculty members of higher education institutions taken from Islamabad and Lahore. It is found that Integration of change is necessary for improvement in quality of higher education and it is the responsibility of the academic leaders to play their role for working in change management