Leadership during Covid times
Can there be a school life without proximity to classmates and teachers? No cuddling, or circle time or storytelling for the children in Kindergarten.
As news filters of schools re-opening across some States, the challenges of leadership during Covid times becomes glaring. While parents are apprehensive, school leaders are grappling with issues of restoring faith of the community at large.
After the initial hiccups for more than six months, most private schools and some government schools, kept the fire of education burning, notwithstanding the challenges of resources and internet bandwidth. What aided them was a reduction in the syllabi and training and support from the IT department. Now, with the news of the schools reopening, the school community at large is apprehensive.
Ask any student and he is excited about going back to the brick and mortar building. Students have missed school life and bonding with teachers and peers. However, the school they will go back to will be very different. The Italian psychologist Malguzzi stated that the students had three teachers, parents and educators, peers and the environment. Except for parents, all the others will have to be re-introduced.
Can there be a school life without proximity to classmates and teachers? No cuddling, or circle time or storytelling for the children in Kindergarten. Will it be a challenge for children to learn distancing and later unlearn it? School environment must ensure hygiene and sanitisation and numbers must be staggered. This is perhaps the biggest challenge faced by the school leadership. Need for partial attendance, innovative measures and blended learning will have to be explored.
Besides, leadership has to have the preparedness and the readiness to change for any emergency. One word which comes foremost to mind is communication. This has to be clear, consistent and concise. It requires showing empathy when required but to avoid the tendency to sugar coat. There must be a forum to ask questions and a shared understanding of the uncertainty.
Maslow’s hierarchy is an important graph to measure and understand the challenges of leadership. Starting from physiological needs, the needs are of safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self- actualization. The school leaders must have the vision and clarity to measure themselves against these parameters. They should tackle Issues of mental health and eradicate an increasing sense of isolation.
One effective way is to celebrate all that has been achieved and to build on the challenges with effective self-evaluation. To list all the skills one has gained during the past six months, build on them and identify what more is required. For example, if the school has not been sufficiently inclusive or teachers have struggled with assessment tools, the way forward in dealing with them.
Staff-wellbeing, as all effective leaders have known, is not a peripheral but a central concern. All leaders must decide and plan, be candid, collaborate, show empathy and most of all enhance community relationships.
Madhu Sharma
(Education consultant)
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