A lack of integrity: How can schools be trusted to oversee exams fairly if school leaders are deceitful?
Kausor Amin-Ali FRSA FCCT
School Principal | Co-Chair Ajman Principals Collaborative | Author | Chair of Governors | Founder of 'All Children Read' | PhD candidate
At the start of this calendar year, I alluded to the Honesty vs Hard work matrix. Now a quarter of the way in the Western year, and for many international schools, a significant proportion will be observing Ramadan, two thirds in the Islamic year, it is a suitable time to reflect.
Teaching and running of schools is fast becoming like acting with the drama of the awards ceremony too. Full of praise, false superficial smiles with (similarly artificial teeth and suntans) and everyone is a winner mentality towards 'school success.' The latter is often 'judged' by inspection and/or exam outcomes.
I also previously wrote about Keeping Staff Safe in Education whereby in some schools, they are led by hardworking liars. Principals with no principles, school (mis)leaders, interfering owners who walk into classrooms, attend SLT meetings and make operational decisions, are in their earnest to ensure student outcomes are maximised for their own profit/performance (pay) appraisal, enhanced inspection outcomes and for 'bragging' rights on social media when (external) exam results are published at the end of the traditional harvest season in Europe in August (where children had summer holidays to attend to the crop fields as child labour).
If Principals and Heads of Schools can deceive, mistreat and lie to staff, how can they be trusted to lead exams as Head of Centre?
The lying game: Hubris wrapped in self-righteousness
Some leaders believe in their own hype! Recently, I had an encounter with a school owner whom I have not met for more than three years, whom my last interaction was one set on deceit and racism. Yet the hubris and self-righteousness and hypocrisy of such individuals is astounding. Not quite an Oscars performance, but acting up their role is quite a sight to witness. What is more apparent is that they genuinely believe they are behaving in a correct manner and behave with integrity as they espouse honesty to their school community.
They attend conferences and meetings of school leaders and 'talk a good talk' about impact, supporting staff and students, but behind closed doors they plot and conspire on which staff to terminate/let go and who to promote or demote like a cruel 'fixed' game of chess, where they possess both black and white pieces.
A lack of accountability
If the ministerial regulatory bodies in the jurisdictions are not able to root out such malpractice, then this is a significant failing. As a sector we owe it to students and staff to ensure transparency and accountability of malpractice.
Permits and licenses should be reviewed for such schools if they fail to ensure leaders are acting in accordance to professional standards namely of honesty. Otherwise such jurisdictions get a bad reputation to work or operate in.
Robust inspection criteria becomes a farce, if the elephants in the room are not being addressed. Positive affirmation of school (mis)leaders and operators who breach the regulatory framework enable the tyranny and empire of deceit to prevail.
An 'international' conflict of interest in rubber stamping?
If the international bodies whose 'kite mark' (often with a flag of a country) are endorsing such schools with superficial application of the accreditation criteria or self-evaluation that are full of 'made up %' data and/or generic statements overused of "good," "very good," "outstanding" and "excellent," then this is also a systemic and sector failing.
It brings into disrepute the body, or at least the inspection/accreditation team of that body. Unlike in professional sports, where officials can be suspended if deemed to be poor in their decision making, by their association, the body who oversees and the officials who visit the international schools are the same 'peer' group. A conflict of interest if ever there was.
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The perception of what then manifests to be a 'pay and pass' inspection, or a 'present (false information) and pass' the audit, or a lack of rigour to challenge school leaders on their widely known reputation of poor leadership, deceitful ways to staff and/or owner interference as 'Co-School Principals' sitting in the same meetings, is at best disappointing, at worse co-conspiratorial in the endorsement of everything we stand against in school leadership: falsehood and manipulation.
External Examinations need honest exam centre management
This begs to ask the bigger question: how can such lying leaders and owners be trusted to head up (external) exams centres? Are exam board staff also being deceived? Is the exam centre inspection similarly hoodwinked for compliance i.e. a secure room, only two keys, double locks, a secure instant courier etc.
In many international schools based on the English curriculum (sold as 'British') or the International Baccalaureate, students take multiple external board exams, usually written, but some are verbal and practical, based on the English GCSE, AS and A level reformatted as international iterations by Pearson (Edexcel) or Cambridge International Education or if adopting the European system, the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma.
Exam boards are not to blame as they rightly rely on the integrity of the Head of Centre... the Principal, Vice Principal or Head of Secondary School. How are they to know that a few of their centres are being run by liars?
A sector wide solution
Root out corrupt school Principals, school leaders, owners/operators who are tarnishing the sector, but more importantly giving 'false success' to students with their cheating, 'win at any cost' approach to the management and leadership of schools.
Sanctions are applied to the leaders of states who fail to comply with international standards. Then why cannot the same apply to international schools? In other sectors, they can be banned from participation, but why can such individuals or entities in education continue to join another gravy train in another country or jurisdiction - with no consequences.
Measures to consider
Sanctions to be considered
Challenging the Status Quo in Education I Head of Year 6 at The British International School Shanghai, Puxi I Passionate & Progressive Educator I Lifelong Learner I The Odds Beater
8 个月?? I believe that mediocrity poses one of the greatest threats to education. It's good that some very important issues have been raised here. It's imperative that we strive for excellence and celebrate it. Therefore, I firmly believe that mediocrity is not an option, neither for leaders nor for teachers, as our students deserve nothing but the best. School should not be perceived as anyone's personal playground, where, as you've aptly pointed out, (mis)leaders can manipulate situations like chess pieces, using teachers and the entire community as pawns to serve their own agendas. This type of privileged behaviour must cease, and the hiring process should be treated with the utmost seriousness. Creating a toxic culture cannot and should not be tolerated, as the culture within a school is paramount. We require strong foundations, as it is these roots that can weather the fiercest storms. These (mis)leaders often vilify those who dare to challenge them and their "leadership" style. What we truly need is a culture of justice, continuous learning, and psychological safety—not a deceitful facade.
Discover Your Leadership Sweet Spot. Guiding Senior Leaders to Achieve Lasting Impact.
8 个月Thanks for shedding light on this important issue! ?? #educationmatters #integrity