Educational stakeholders from Nigeria and the United Kingdom converged in Lagos on Friday to develop professional standards for school leaders.
The five-day summit, which was the outcome of a partnership between the British Council and the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), sought to promote excellence in instructional leadership among school leaders in Nigeria.
According to the Council’s Programme Director, Mr Chidi Onyemerela, the standard aims to establish clear performance expectations for school leaders in instructional leadership across different career stages and define the essential knowledge and competencies needed for effective leadership.
Onyemerela said the professional standards initiative was a product of a study tour that looked at the practice of instructional leadership in the UK, adding that a gap was discovered in the Nigerian educational sector that needed to be filled.
“The British Council has locations in over 100 countries in the world and we bring expertise from these locations to bear on the needs of the country.
“Following the study tour, we found out there was a gap in Nigeria. On return to Nigeria, we wanted to meet the discovered gaps. And we engaged TRCN which indicated interest in working with us in filling the gaps in school leadership practice”, he said.
He said other critical stakeholders were also engaged to develop a leadership standard that enabled profound student outcomes.
He noted that in terms of policy implementation, there was a need for widespread consultation by all stakeholders to gain buy-in.
Further speaking, he added, “We have done well in bringing everybody in the room and now we are trying to develop a document that is widely accepted. The second layer is the system of implementing it. We are trying to operationalise it so we would have an operational manual and measurement”.
Also speaking, the Registrar of TRCN, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, said the ultimate goal of the programme was to review the current school leadership in Nigeria, noting that school leadership accounts for about one-fourth of learners’ attainment in their schools.
He said, “In Nigeria, we have not concentrated so well on school leadership. That is why we’re bringing out a unique policy document on school leadership especially when we are talking about instructional leadership”.
