Implementing Leadership, Management, And Change In Your School

For many decades, we have been speaking and having reforms in education done for a particular purpose at the secondary levels in Mauritius. However, we are still lagging behind in terms of contributions to help get rid of drugs that can add to the country’s wealth and bring happiness to our people. For this to happen, policy makers need to think out of the box. The commission received complaints from NGOs of the proliferation of synthetic drugs amongst the school children in our local schools. This has unfortunately occurred as well in the school I am currently working. This is an alarming issue which needed to be tackled the soonest possible. There was an emergent need for change. Consequently, these changes were led by considering some leadership and management styles relevant to the issue of synthetic drugs in my respective educational context. In addition to that, Kotter’s (1995) leading change process was used as a change model to deal with that particular issue. Furthermore, the concept of emotionally intelligent leader by Goleman (2002) was explored to have a better idea of how much I understand myself as a leader, regulate emotions in myself and how I can motivate and inspire my followers at school.

Lastly, this task looked at how effective theories of leadership and management styles chosen were in effecting the change. Mauritius is a country blessed with many natural resources and good hearted people. But most unfortunately, this land and its youngsters are being slowly taken over by one of the worst social evils which are that of drug abuse (Ahmad,M. 2017). So indeed, the biggest issue in my school is the synthetic drug being consumed by students. The situation is alarming and not much is being done by the authorities to address this problem. Synthetic drugs have taken numerous countries in the world including Mauritius by surprise. It made its first appearance in Mauritius sometimes in April 2013 where during this year, a number of cases was established by ADSU. The rise of synthetic drugs since 2013 has been alarming and they were causing chaos amongst the youngsters and some fatal. From the last information provided by ADSU, the increase of synthetic drugs on the market is a clear indication of its high demand. We are giving it more importance now as synthetic drugs is becoming a real challenge to the authorities as they are being smuggled in forms of cleaning materials and even attractive candies. Besides, official reports concerning drug from the ministry of health and quality of life, police report of the number of arrests and unofficial reports from NGOs and articles published in the local press have expressed their serious concern regarding the availability of synthetic drugs in the school setting and the adverse health impact.

This year, we had a case in my school regarding synthetic drugs where some students were caught with this substance. This shocked quite many of us and made us start thinking that what we heard on the local press and online articles has actually reached our school. Those drugs are now widespread among our local youngsters and students, not only because the price is affordable but also their availability on the market. They can be purchased through the internet, by normal letter or through someone they know. Actually, I was told by other educators that these students who were involved in the drugs cases this year were good and well-behaved students in their previous classes. Now, there is a big change in their behaviors, habits, learning, health, examination marks and life style from the point they did not consume these illicit substances to the point they took it. I also learnt that rectors from both the private sector and public sector schools, as well as trade unionists from educational institutions of both sides were questioned at large regarding drug problems in the educational sector. Most of the rectors denied about any existing drug issues in their institutions, while a few did agree that there existed in fact drug problems, which is a real threat. After having heard and listened to all information obtained by some of my colleagues in school, I realized that action needs to be taken for a change.

Hence, by applying Kotter’s leading change process, I took the initiative to create a sense of emergency. As a transformational leader, the best way to get things done is to inject enthusiasm and energy into the effort. So, the principle was the first person I felt the most credible to had a conversation with. Besides, as an emotionally intelligent leader, I believe I have the ability to recognize and regulate emotions in myself and in others. I am a socially aware person and I have the social skills to tackle issues coming from outside of my school. To my great astonishment, I learnt that the principle feared of wrongly accusing a student with all the consequences that follow. To justify her inability of leading and managing the situation, she complained of a lack of trained teachers to handle drugs issues, psychologists for rehabilitation, statistics, proper infrastructure, lack of mechanism to identify helpless students, extra curriculum activities after school hours, inadequate sensitization programs and lack of specialized cells in school consisting of PTA to deal with drug problems and welfare officers. It was understood that the organization did not want to be transformed. But, I was determined to get people out of the comfort zone. I therefore assured my principle that I can motivate a team and build relationships with the mission and vision of the school and help solve the issue, together with her collaboration and support. The latter trusted me and allowed me a chance.

Teachers were summoned in a meeting with the rector with a view to assess the situation and come up with certain recommendations to address this issue. I found it a favorable moment to dig in the discussion something similar that happened in a private school situated in the south of Mauritius the previous year. Actually, there was an upsurge of drug in this college where the rector highlighted having handled the situation well with the help of the staffs and considered remedial steps to combat the issue. He also emphasized much on the socio-economic aspect of the situation and the dedication and motivation of his staffs. Consequently, I used this particular example as a strong reason to build capacity which is the second step of Kotter. With a charismatic leadership style, I influenced the change in attitude of the organizational members and built commitment to meet the vision and mission of the school. There was the need to enable followers to think of old problems in new ways and communicate high performance expectations charismatically. Taking into consideration the potential and competence of each staff, we have put together different teams to lead the change.

At the same time, the rector moved from the hierarchical model of management to the collegial model where the process of the discussion led to a consensus instead of just implementing decisions. Then only will the future be different from the past by developing the vision and ensuring that people understand and accept it. At school, we already had different clubs like the IT club, health club, and integrity club amongst all. Besides, we have students doing subjects such as life skills, science, sociology or tourism and travel. By applying a participative approach, teachers responsible for the health club for instance or during teaching of subjects like sociology or life skills, were convinced to address the synthetic drug issue. Thus, they provided a sequence and continuity that impact on these student’s lives.

Moreover, the chemistry department proved to be very helpful in tackling the issue. A chemistry educator of long experience confirmed that synthetic drug can only be manufactured in highly sophisticated laboratory having the proper equipment, knowledge, raw materials and resources. In the same vein, the educator mentioned that mixtures can be prepared by the students at the laboratory and on the local market. Since in every college, there is a chemistry laboratory with chemicals such as acids and other solvents, which are used in mixtures as well, the principle was cautious and this time, did not leave it simply to the responsibility of chemistry teachers to control the chemicals which are mostly handled by attendants. So, change is also being mobilized and properly managed. Hence, this change completes kotter’s fourth and fifth steps of ‘leading change’ process where people understood and accepted the vision and at the same time, barriers were removed whereby teachers did their best works. So, since the change is transitional, we all needed to rethink and reorganized to move into that change. Moreover a distributive leadership style has been selected to work as a team in discussing the many ways for teaching and learning to take place. Hence, making students aware of the seriousness of the issues we are currently having. So, these educational programs for drug abuse prevention should be responsive and inclusive.

Furthermore, it was highlighted that synthetic drug abuse forms part of the youngster’s lives. Thus, lessons taught by respective teachers included factors such as adolescent development, how to cope with stress, sexuality, culture, language, ability level, interaction between their homes, school, peers and personal relationships. I was informed by some of my colleagues some weeks later that by interacting with students in class like that helped a lot to know about the reality of their backgrounds, experiences and living styles which proved to be meaningful in education for synthetic drug abuse programs. Leadership was spreading throughout the organization. On top of that, teachers mentioned that students reacted positively when they were being questioned openly. Hence, this generated a short term win which is the sixth step of Kotter being realized.

However, there was a point in time that some teachers wanted to stop and just concentrate on their teaching work because they lamented that the burden was mostly on their shoulders. So, immediate action had to be taken to keep their lost motivation and the change alive. As a change agent and very determined to transform the system to a better one, I could not let them quit like this. With the help of the rector, deputy rector and teachers, we recommended that specialized cell comprising of a psychologist, PTA members, teachers, administrative staff amongst all in each educational institution will be a good initiative to tackle with cases pertaining to drug, and sensibilization campaign against synthetic drug. Once again, the participative leadership style was applied. Besides, students with behavioral changes at school were once marginalized or were transferred to other schools. Nevertheless now, those having drug issues were not be dismissed from the colleges or transferred to other colleges.

On the contrary, their parents were called to school and these students were referred to NGOs and psychologists to receive the necessary treatment and follow-up. Moreover, to make the change stick, the rector suggested proper reporting of any synthetic drug cases, unusual behaviors of students, regular absenteeism and the creation of a data base at the level of the Ministry to be shared with all the stakeholders with a view to harmonize all strategies. Also, very often students broke toilets or smoke in toilets. After having discussed in meetings organized by the rector and sharing participative and distributed leadership styles, all staffs came to a consensus of putting cameras. So, CCTV cameras were installed at strategic points to identify irregular activities and to take remedial action to control them. It was also noticed at school that many teachers were not well versed of the dangers of synthetic drugs and how to handle cases like this at school. Hence, they were asked by the rector if they are willing to get the necessary training to identify drug issues among students and behavior change. It was taken care that nothing was being imposed on the followers. I actually found myself as a moral agent leading effectively by understanding both myself and the motivations and reactions of my followers.

The effectiveness of the leadership and management styles I used to tackle the synthetic drug issue proved to be effective at certain level. In fact, more efforts and patience are needed from staffs members and the administration. Besides, the commission of inquiry recommends that a protocol should be established in each educational institution map to guide the institution how to deal with drug cases, training and sensitization programs. I succeeded to design, lead and manage the required change to improve the situation in my school. There was full cooperation of the principle, staffs members, NGO’s, parents, psychologists and welfare officers. It was very important to maintain stability of the change than focusing on leadership styles being used. Many solutions to the problem of synthetic drugs were identified but only the preferred ones were considered. Pertinent data were collected and everyone was proud to have worked collaboratively towards such a problem causing issue in Mauritius.