How are secondary schools managing strategic planning today?

Abstract

The key objective in the reform of the administration of education in New Zealand in October 1989 was that schools, both primary and secondary, should become self-managing. Decision-making was decentralised so that appropriate solutions could be found to meet local needs at the local level. This approach provided each school with the ability to solve their own issues in their own unique way. Schools now receive operating grants and some schools have elected to be direct resourced. Schools are now operating in a more competitive environment. Consequently, they need to plan not only on a daily and/or yearly basis but also on a long term basis, so as to identify the key strategies that will provide the school with its own identity that links it to the community. A vehicle for long term planning is strategic management and it is the purpose of this study to examine issues of strategic management arising from the reforms. In particular, the study considers perceptions of principals of all state secondary schools in New Zealand who were surveyed about the use of planning in general and more specifically, the ways in which strategic planning has been formulated, implemented and monitored.