Here are some key areas requiring swift and immediate attention. The first port of call is to create an enabling environment in which teachers and students can thrive. The role of governance in the overall health of schools and acceleration attainment of improved learning outcomes cannot be overemphasised. Every known high performing school is endowed with a rare breed of top-notch leadership. The Ontario School Leadership supports this claim. The framework has established an intimate correspondence between governance and academic outcomes and the welfare of students. It is against this backdrop that the issue of governance cannot wait. It is an urgent issue requiring urgent panel beating. The system should audaciously consider going shopping in the open market to recruit and pay well the ablest educators to come and man public schools. There is no harm in taking leaf from private schools, which endeavour at all times to recruit the crème de la crème.
Private schools in line with the Ontario School Leadership Framework do not leave matters of school governance to chance. Doing things the unusual way by going on a shopping spree for exceptional school leaders might not be a popular decision because it may ruin careers for under achieving school governors but it is a move that would do away with complacency and encourage both serving and aspiring principals to raise the bar while taking care of the best interests of students. Once the schools are in the hands of best, tried and tested principals, the central office would be relieved of the trouble of micro managing schools from a distance.
