Top ranked leadership and education NPO, Symphonia for South Africa (SSA), this week acknowledges the men and women who work tirelessly to shape communities and the future leaders of South Africa.
‘’Principals have a huge impact on school quality; after teachers, research shows that they have the largest impact on learner outcomes. They play a pivotal role in creating school environments where teachers are able to excel in teaching, and learners in learning. As we pause to thank, elevate and celebrate our nation’s visionary, hard-working principals, let’s think more strategically about how we can support them to be the best leaders they can be,’’ says Komala Pillay, CEO of SSA. ‘’While a heartfelt letter or small token of appreciation can show principals how much their work is valued, what principals really need is better support to make their jobs less stressful and to enable them to be strong leaders. This includes capacitating, empowering and supporting them to lead their schools successfully for the benefit of our children,’’ the SSA CEO added.
Driving efforts to support school leadership in South Africa is SSA’s flagship programme, Partners for Possibility (PfP). The multi-award winning, internationally recognised programme partners school principals serving under-resourced communities with business leaders, in a collaborative and practical leadership journey. PfP features the key elements of professional coaching, five-days of world-class training workshops over the course of the year, practical leadership development exposure in a South African school and regular learning and networking opportunities for principals.
Pillay explained: ‘’These partnerships allow principals to acquire knowledge and skills which significantly strengthen their leadership and management capacity. We have seen principals become better listeners, more democratic and less autocratic, better able to adapt to challenges, more effective at facilitating stakeholder engagement and better able to manage people and resources. And as result of improved leadership practice among these principals, their School Management Teams are more cohesive and teachers have higher morale and motivation. These changes ultimately expose learners to more quality learning opportunities.
Finally, the PfP programme leads to greater parental and community involvement in schools, with a wide variety of corporations, churches, NPOS and local universities providing funding or lending their time and expertise. Many more parents and grandparents start to assist schools in various ways.’’
In light of the recent floods that have damaged over 600 KZN schools and the Covid-19 pandemic that experts suggest have set back education progress by 5 years, Pillay has appealed to all South Africans to look to the future by helping to ‘build back better’ after this tragedy.
‘’A South Africa where all children go on to become economically productive adults and who are able to develop sustainable livelihoods, is a vision seemingly out of reach in a country grappling with the effects of a declining economy, increasing unemployment rates, and most recently the floods that have wreaked havoc in KZN. But, we believe, it is a vision that can be realised if we begin to invest more in the leadership of principals. As a start, we all have an opportunity to play a role in rebuilding the affected KZN schools. We call on every South African to play their part in supporting a principal from a school impacted by the floods. With the help of every citizen, PfP is uniquely positioned to support this monumental task,‘’ says Pillay.
To learn more, please join an informal online information session on either the 11th, 18th or 25th May from 8:00 – 9:00.
RSVP to [email protected] for the Zoom link.
For further information please visit: www.PfP4SA.org
