Strategic Planning at Anykščiai District Secondary Schools
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Abstract
The article describes the specifics and problems of strategic planning at secondary schools. The article states that the strategic planning of activities at the Lithuanian secondary schools is excessively regulated by applying a general method designed for public bodies which does not reflect the specifics of strategic planning. It was found that three types of different attitudes exist in the scientific literature towards the process of strategic planning at secondary schools. The first approach highlights thorough strategic analysis and its mechanism, the second one notes the participants in the strategic process and the third one denotes the stages of strategic planning.
It was noted that the Lithuanian secondary schools can be led by clear recommendations of how to organise and implement the programmes, as well as on the ways to evaluate the quality of secondary school activities.
It was discovered that the main factors that cause strategic planning problems at Anykščiai district secondary schools are: the lack of economic and psychological motivation, excessively complicated strategic planning methods, the shortage of strategic planning courses and the lack of experience.
Frequently the principals delegate strategic planning tasks to the other group members. Due to excessive austerity of planning, the creativity of teachers is restricted, the principal is too occupied with the current issues, hence, insufficient time is spent on long-term planning and leading, no appropriate conditions for planning are found, the common attitude persists that activity planning is unrelated to school running, the principal fails to timely review long-term plans and avoids strategic planning by making intuitive decisions.
The main criteria used in school activity planning are research results and quality evaluation of school activities (internal audit), conclusions of external evaluators, suggestions of working groups, decisions of meetings and reporting data.
Anykščiai district secondary schools came across the following issues while implementing the strategy: lack of financial resources, underdeveloped social infrastructure and lack of material resources. In part, teachers lack motivation to implement the programmes, conflicts of interest occur in the external environment, also there is a shortage of staff able to implement the programmes, which negatively affects strategy implementation.
It was found that internal control procedures established at Anykščiai district secondary schools only partially ensured the achievement of strategic goals and programme implementation. The most effective and frequently used internal control procedures were provision of regular information about the new opportunities and noted issues to the leaders and programme’ monitoring.
It was noted that the Lithuanian secondary schools can be led by clear recommendations of how to organise and implement the programmes, as well as on the ways to evaluate the quality of secondary school activities.
It was discovered that the main factors that cause strategic planning problems at Anykščiai district secondary schools are: the lack of economic and psychological motivation, excessively complicated strategic planning methods, the shortage of strategic planning courses and the lack of experience.
Frequently the principals delegate strategic planning tasks to the other group members. Due to excessive austerity of planning, the creativity of teachers is restricted, the principal is too occupied with the current issues, hence, insufficient time is spent on long-term planning and leading, no appropriate conditions for planning are found, the common attitude persists that activity planning is unrelated to school running, the principal fails to timely review long-term plans and avoids strategic planning by making intuitive decisions.
The main criteria used in school activity planning are research results and quality evaluation of school activities (internal audit), conclusions of external evaluators, suggestions of working groups, decisions of meetings and reporting data.
Anykščiai district secondary schools came across the following issues while implementing the strategy: lack of financial resources, underdeveloped social infrastructure and lack of material resources. In part, teachers lack motivation to implement the programmes, conflicts of interest occur in the external environment, also there is a shortage of staff able to implement the programmes, which negatively affects strategy implementation.
It was found that internal control procedures established at Anykščiai district secondary schools only partially ensured the achievement of strategic goals and programme implementation. The most effective and frequently used internal control procedures were provision of regular information about the new opportunities and noted issues to the leaders and programme’ monitoring.
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