Learning never stops—even for those who are assigned positions at the top.
With an eye at further developing the leadership competencies of the country’s Schools Division Superintendents, the National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) has spearheaded the Superintendents Leadership Program (SLP).
Now on its seventh module titled “Creating a Coaching Culture in the SDO (Schools Division Office),” the training workshop was held from July 29 to August 2 at the Chali Beach Resort and Conference Center in Cugman, Cagayan de Oro.
It sought to enable division leaders to “perform their functions well amidst changes in the environment, strategies, policies, and organization of the Department of Education.”
According to John Arnold S. Siena, Director-IV of the NEAP, the activity is the DepEd’s response to the challenges that beset its superintendents and their assistants.
“The SDSs are at the forefront in the delivery of basic education to the communities,” explained Siena.
“They are the ones that directly oversee the administration of schools including the teaching-learning process as well as the implementation of education policies and programs in accordance with Republic Act 9155 or the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001, and in the context of the 21st century, this role can be extra challenging.”
“We are optimistic that the participants understand the important elements for installing or promoting a coaching culture at individual, group or school and division level. This includes them crafting the SDO Coaching plan for implementing a coaching culture back in their respective divisions,” said program lead Anna Marie Baligod-San Diego.
Siena said this is where the SLP becomes relevant.
“The SLP is designed to enable the SDS and ASDS to respond to the challenges posed by the highly volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous and diverse environment,” he said.
“We have high hopes that the those who undergo the SLP will be able to hone and strengthen their leadership and managerial skills in providing quality, accessible, relevant and liberating basic education to learners,” said Siena.
Other program objectives include deepening of self-awareness and self-mastery, embracing the principles of servant leadership, enhancing leadership and management skills and being a catalyst for change.
At the end of the five-day training, NEAP hopes the participants have been able to develop their division coaching plan to help improve the performance of teaching, teaching-related and non-teaching personnel.
Their resource persons, Gilda de Leon-Salud and Vivien Reyes, are both internationally-certified coaches from the group Learning Nation, whose advocacy is to spread Systems Thinking in every organization so as to break silos and generate meaningful dialogues.
