Investigating the usefulness of Fiji's future school leaders' programme

Abstract

This research examines the school leaders' perceptions on the usefulness of the Future Leaders' Programme (FLP) which they themselves had undergone prior to taking up leadership roles in schools. Using a qualitative research design, data were gathered by means of document analysis and semi-structured interviews with 20 rural and 20 urban school leaders (former participants of FLP). The major findings to come into sight are: first, FLP helps build confidence in teachers to take up leadership roles, secondly, it assists in the understanding of education policies and successful implementation of the new reforms in education; and finally it makes teachers' move away from the traditional leadership style and prepares them for the 21st century leadership. Overall, both the rural and urban school leaders' perception is that FLP enables them to improve their leadership skills and prepares them to be better school leaders. This study, by providing information on the usefulness of the FLP, is likely to be of interest to the Ministry of Education (MoE).