Education Organization and Systems

[Assignment Title]

[Module Name]

[Module Code]

[Student Name]

[Student Number]

Education Organization and Systems

Introduction

From my personal experience working in secondary schools in different countries, having worked at a government secondary school in Nigeria and a private secondary school in the UK, There seems to be no shortage of adequately thought-out policies, but in the implementation of these carefully formulated policies. For example, there was a policy on student's dress code introduced in the Nigerian secondary school where I taught and a no corporal punishment policy which failed as a result of ineffective management style. Secondary school leaders are constantly looking for ways to improve the success rate of policy implementation in schools, but to no avail. Perhaps, if the people in authority understood the problems associated with the implementation of past policies in secondary schools, then they would be a step closer to successfully implementing these policies in their schools. Katliliute, (2005). (Berkhout, Wielemans, 1999; Welsh, McGinn, 1999; cited in Katliliute, 2005) did also note that “management style, public opinion, micro politics and legitimate authority structure with in a given system” could all affect the success or failure of policy implementation in schools.

A consideration of the definition of policy suggests that there are different views, for example, Ghavifekr, Hussin and Faizal (2011) describes policy as a decision made by the people in authority for the purpose of introducing change that will better a situation or change in the behaviour of the people involved which will lead to success in such organisations. They observed that the introduction of change in secondary schools, particularly in the area of technology has far-reaching effects in schools. While Ali (2006) is of the opinion that policy implementation is a result of policy formulation in schools. He further defines policy implementation as a process of putting into practice those policies that have been formulated.

Although there is a general saying “that it is easier said than done”, which is the reason why this assignment aims to find out problems affecting the implementation of policies in secondary schools.

Similarly, Taylor et al (1997 pp. 24-25) “Policy is much more than a specific policy document or text. Rather policy is both process and product. In such a conceptualisation, policy involves the production of the text, the text itself, ongoing modifications to the text and processes of implementation into practice”. For the sake of clarity and the purpose of this assignment, it is relevant to look at the problems of policy implementation in secondary schools, as well as give a brief definition of education policy given by an author. Berkhout and Wielemans's (1999) definition of education policy is similar to the definition of policy by the other authors above, they added that education is both a public and private good, and that is why the government of the day and bureaucrats strive to make policies that will positively improve the education standard.

Identifiable problems affecting policy implementation in secondary schools

There are many problems affecting the implementation of policies in secondary ...