School Management and Preparation of School Development Plans: A Study in Sabaragamuwa Province in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Purpose of this research paper is to examine the role of school management in developing school development plans in relation to both primary and secondary education. We argue that school planning plays a key role in education development in the country and accordingly hypothesize that four variable namely visionary school leadership, stakeholder engagement, clarity of objectives and financial resource allocation positively contribute for the success of school planning. Quantitative methodology is used where descriptive statistics and relationships are measured by using SPSS statistical application. The sample consists of 178 schools out 1125 schools located in the Sabaragamuwa province. Data is collected through a structured questionnaire given to school principals. The study finds significant correlations between each variable hypothesized and school planning. Leadership of school principal, the culture of sharing and team work, information gathering grass rout level, proper assignment of responsibilities are identified as key influences to increase the efficiency of school management. Lack awareness, vague structures of preparing plans, reluctance to delegate responsibilities to lower ranks, lack of continuous teacher development, bottlenecks at implementation, reviewing and monitoring of school planning and programs are other major areas of attention needed to improve the quality of school planning and management.