Free knowledge hub launched to boost school leadership and management

Learners using their newly acquired tablets

Known as the Trialogue Knowledge Hub, the resource offers examples of best-practice projects, case studies, local and international research findings, and many more tools. These can assist schools, educators, philanthropists and companies that want to start up their own projects, as well as researchers and media needing up-to-date information.

This best-practice resource has been created by CSI consultancy Trialogue and Old Mutual, a long-term supporter of better-functioning schools.

Kanyisa Diamond, Senior Project Manager of the Old Mutual Foundation

Kanyisa Diamond, Senior Project Manager of the Old Mutual Foundation, says the Old Mutual Education Flagship Project was set up in 2013. Its holistic approach combines mentoring, coaching and leadership training with experience across the board to build strong school leadership and management capability of principals and senior management teams, enhancing classroom teaching skills for maths and science educators.

“We want to share our learnings of many years and, through the Knowledge Hub, provide schools with an opportunity to access high-quality information. We have also partnered with a service provider to set up vegetable gardens at selected schools, to contribute towards better nutrition for learners.”

We hope that other companies that are considering getting involved in the social investment sector will build on our experiences so that the cumulative effect is enhanced.”

Trialogue MD Nick Rockey says: “It’s generally accepted that education needs competent, inspiring leaders. But unlike the business sector, which has long traditions of assessment and instruction to build up its leadership ranks, there’s not the same level of continuous training in education. We hope that our resource will form part of the solution.”

Rockey says that Trialogue’s goal is to have corporates funding topics across 12 development sectors on the Knowledge Hub. To date it has six supporters: Old Mutual, with information on school leadership and management; Investec on maths and science education; Nedbank Private Wealth is sharing its expertise on philanthropy; the MMI Foundation is promoting financial literacy; Vodacom is supporting information communications technology in education; and Absa the topic of shared value.

Contact: To access the Trialogue Knowledge Hub: www.trialogueknowledgehub.co.za/index.php/topics/school-leadership-and-management.

Companies interested in sponsoring a new topic or contributing learnings to and insights on existing topics should contact Ruendree Govinder at az.oc.eugolairt@rednivogr.

Sources: Trialogue Knowledge Hub including http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/Documents/Assessing-the-Effectiveness-of-School-Leaders.pdf and http://www.trialogueknowledgehub.co.za/index.php/the-case-for-leadership/item/systemic-interventions-in-schools-new-partnerships-and-new-perspectives.