National College for Educational Leadership Announces New Programmes

The National College for Educational Leadership (NCEL) has announced a series of new programmes to come on stream over the next few months, aimed at building the professional capacity of educational leaders at different levels of the sector.

Principal Director of NCEL, Dr. Maurice Smith, in an interview with JIS News, said the agency, which is operated under the Ministry of Education, will be launching the School Financial Management and Administration training programme in September.

This programme will provide training for bursars, assistant bursars and clerical assistants, as well as for other persons who support financial management in schools.

In November, a training programme for middle leaders in schools, such as Heads of departments and grade coordinators will also be introduced. There will also be a System Leadership for School Improvement programme, aimed at educating officers.

“All our programmes are competency based, so they do face-to-face interactions, they do coaching and mentorship and they do school-based interventions. However, this is pitched at the various levels depending on who the target audience is,” Dr. Smith said.

He noted that the NCEL will be starting an executive leadership training programme for leaders within the Ministry of Education and its agencies.

The agency will also be accepting its first cohort in January 2016 for the University and Colleges Leaders training programme for senior administrators at the tertiary level.

Dr. Smith said programmes are informed by a competency framework and are in response to the need to ensure team members undergo relevant professional development.

He said this is also aligned with the current process of modernisation by the Ministry of Education, which has implications for the way the Ministry functions and the way schools are supervised and supported.

“These programmes are designed to ensure that all existing leaders and future leaders develop the particular competencies that will ensure that they are able to function effectively to ensure that the schools do well. (They also) complement other programmes that we are currently delivering to support principals and aspiring principals and education officers,” Dr. Smith said.

He noted that the Aspiring Principals Programme, which was started last year to train persons who are to take up the role of principal in the nation’s schools, has been going well. He added that 114 persons are currently enrolled in the second cohort of the programme, which will be completed in December of this year. Recruitment for the third cohort will commence in March 2016.

With the successful passage of legislation within the Revised Code of Regulations, this programme will become mandatory for all persons seeking to become school principals.