Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Principals have power to run schools: DepEd By Elisabeth P. Baumgart Sun.Star Correspondent
A FORMER education official hopes the devolution of the decision-making authority to the school level will empower school heads to make the right decisions for their campuses.
Former education un-dersecretary Fe Hildalgo said yesterday at the Cebu Education Revolution Forum at the Ecotech Center in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City that through school-based management, school heads would have an easier time to implement orders that they have issued rather than wait for orders from the central office.
Policies
“The more the policies come from the central office the more difficult they are to follow because of their number,” Hidalgo told Sun.Star Cebu.
However, Hidalgo clarified that national policies are immediately implemented once they are issued, because of their nature.
The Department of Education (DepEd), being one of the biggest government bureaucracies, found the need to decentralize authority in order to ensure policies would be implemented in all school divisions across the country.
Benefit
Hidalgo added that a major benefit from the school-based management policy is that school heads would no longer have to wait for orders from the DepEd central office to take action, as they are now entitled to make decisions.
“If they hold programs and projects, they can make decisions. Unlike before, one has to do a lot of leg work in order to see the project’s approval,” she said.
While authority and decision-making powers are being devolved to school heads, Hidalgo admits that abuses of these powers are possible.
“You cannot discount that (abuse of power) is not happening. But as far as I know, so far, so good. Wala pa naman abuse of powers,” Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo added that while the school heads are empowered, they also need to be “transparent and accountable” for their actions.
With the turnover of authority, Hidalgo added that school heads should take into consideration that the process of learning is “as important as the end result.”
Quality
“In other words, the means is as important as the end. The quality of learning is very important,” she said.
Hidalgo admitted that there was a need to change the teaching strategies of teachers, especially of those who focused on “knowledge transmission.” They should instead focus on “knowledge transformation”.
“This means that they don’t just transmit knowledge, but they know how to use it,” said Hidalgo.
