Greetings from news.desk

May- the calendar month is the peak of summer, also the school holiday season. May holidays have different connotation for the different stakeholders in the school environment.

School staff- While the teaching staff is on a break usually, the administrative staff is involved with repair-sprucing-improving the school environment
School Leadership-dwells on the strategic direction of the institution while laying milestones for the smooth functioning of the scholastic year
School ownership-away from operational challenges the focus is on critical peripheral aspects of managing finance-project-leveraging infrastructure with allied activities
Parents-apart from ferrying the next generation to a tourist location for a break is also focusing on overall development of their child which is a welcome change, over pressure to excel in examinations
Students- are seen in most school campuses but away from academics, into sports and extracurricular activities. There usually is more cheer and joy than any other month making one wonder on why inclusion of sports and extracurricular activities in the school calendar in a more serious deeper way in is being delayed.

Debate to my mind is now more on how rather than why

We at Develop Schools believe in the overall development of the child throughout the year rather than only during breaks have a new programme to offer. Develop via the right brain (click INQUIRY and find out more)

I now invite you to read on and send us your feedback / suggestions. After all we improve when you assist us. Feel free to FORWARD this newsletter to your Trustees / Managing committees / References.

Sincerely,

Melwin Braggs

Business Editor

St. Thomas' - a mission accomplished, a vision translated into action

Our Guest Editor, Mrs. Anuradha Amos,

Principal, St. Thomas School, Mandir Marg, New Delhi

St. Thomas' was founded with a mission to embrace the neglected and the unloved, with a desire to reach out with love and compassion, with a vision to heal and set the community free from the shackles of hatred� That Gandhi Ji walked on its play ground every morning is a matter of great pride for the school. The small, unassuming tin door, which connects the school with the Harijan Basti behind it, was the Mahatma's door to peace, meditation and reflection. The school is unique in many ways. It is not a factory churning out a large number of students every year, bent under the burden of cut-throat competition. Without compromising on education for all, as is seen in our 100% results, more and more students reach new zeniths of excellence.

This school has been a pioneer institution in many ways-

in its commitment to serve the marginalized and under-privileged
in its concern for the individual and the community
in its efforts to arouse sensitivity and generate human virtues of generosity, compassion and understanding

St. Thomas' has been a front-runner in appointing the first social worker and counsellor amongst the schools of Delhi, whose function was both to help solve personal problems leading to better adjustment and to initiate community service projects.

St. Thomas' also initiated the first Parent Teacher Association, to enable a healthy and ongoing interaction between parents and teachers. The school's concern for the differently abled goes back to the 1950's. A special class, PRERNA, was established for students with learning disabilities, with special educators to guide them. The inclusion philosophy of the school has ensured that these students participate in all curricular/co-curricular activities.

The students are sensitized to environmental issues. The Eco-Club activities, the Heritage Walks, the Paper Recycling Technology, Herb-Garden, Water Harvesting, Climate Education Exchange Programme, Earth Week Celebrations, all lead to a deeper understanding of the issues at hand.

Reaching out to the community, the school started the Swavalamban Programme to enable young women from the economically weaker sections to develop vocational skills and become self reliant.

In its long journey of 80 years every step that the school has taken has set a milestone and it continues to create history in its march towards its centenary.

Assessment

Rita Wilson, Chief Editor

(Ex-chief executive and Secretary, ICSE)

The quality of education in the 21st century has become more of a concern than before. Societal shift from being content with reading and numeracy skills to information age which requires the ability to apply, analyse, interpret and use information for decision making, necessitates a shift in skill demands. Educators, policymakers, politicians and parents have all come to realize the need for lifelong education.

Developing critical thinkers has become central to education systems. This development requires changes in the assessment of students both at classroom and school levels. The changed focus in the skills and knowledge needed have direct implications on the relationship that exists between assessment and instruction. Student assessment is an important component if not a fundamental one, in improving or reforming education.

The reliability and validity of any assessment are important aspects if any decisions are to be based on the results of such assessment. The absence of such technical properties of tests prepared by teachers makes people doubt if teachers can really be allocated the task of assessment that is dependable.

School based assessment has a major role to play in the education of our children. Children spend the best part of their young lives with teachers and it is through the teacher assessments that we can better understand their capabilities. To rely solely or to a large extent on the one time examinations, as is common practice in most countries, is to obscure the vision of teachers and deny them a voice of creativity. Teachers in senior secondary schools continue to assess students on a day to day basis but the fruit of their hard labour is easily consumed by the school-leaving examinations which are prepared by an external body. This could be due to lack of confidence in the way teachers assess or that the importance of such assessment is not readily seen.

In this century, there is tremendous need for a change in the way learners are assessed. This need in mandated by the shift in knowledge and skill acquirement that are necessary for full functional products of the global village we live in. It is through the overhaul or shift in instruction and assessment strategies that such changes can be achieved. The quest for learners who have a knowledge base that can help them be critical thinkers, decision makers and problem solvers is the need of the hour. In aligning curriculum with activities and the environment of the classroom, teachers have a critical role to play. Teachers need to know how to mimic the real world to develop the holistic individual in every learner. The need to change the educational experience for learners is central to the issue of developing critical thinkers. Individualized instruction and assessment strategies that go with this require a lot of creativity on the part of the teacher. The changes in the roles of both teacher and learner lie with the teacher as a facilitator of learning.

The importance of school based assessment can therefore not be over emphasized.

Financial accounting in schools

Melwin Braggs, Business Editor

The successful management of any large organization requires to keep a check on the financial health of its institution. Financial information impacts a spectrum of subjects ranging from staff and operations to project cost at the school facility and program levels. A comprehensive financial accounting system can provide benefits such as the following:

Using data in decision making.
Using data to target specific areas for improvement
Using disaggregated data to examine wide-ranging goals
Using data for timely program evaluation.
Using data for budgetary control.
Using data to improve administrative efficiency and mandated reporting.

School financial accounting systems are an important source of information on the costs of an equitable and adequate education in each school. Recently, the emphasis on accountability has turned the spotlight on school achievement, with the focus on how much it costs to achieve a defined level of educational performance for all students. Although conceptually it is convenient to maintain a separate financial system with well-defined elements, most of the operational and policy questions that need to be answered rely heavily on data that cross into areas other than finance. Thus, definitions of school financial data must align with other aspects of the education information system. An aligned and comprehensive education information system should provide the data necessary to answer the following key questions:

How much is spent on actual teaching in classroom vs. project setup cost?
What are the sensitivity levels to be kept in mind on the fee parameter while determining academic output vs. overall development?
How are funds allocated?
How are educational resources linked to student achievement?

To answer these questions, an education information system requires more than a finance component; it also requires a student records system, a staff records system, a property system, a curriculum or program component, and a community services component.

The actual financial accounting being a specialized job requires accounting skill sets and knowledge. Today a number of school management softwares are available which not only cover financial accounting but also a variety of other modules reporting on a spectrum of activities. The Integrated Accounting Package available allows comprehensive management of accounts without the need of cumbersome posting of vouchers. Integrated with fee module, the accounts module automatically manages posting of fees into appropriate accounts heads.

Apart from this, the user is not restricted with only automatically posting but the generic accounting processes are also available as in most popular accounting packages.