On the transfer, reshuffling of school heads

THE start of this new school-year 2018-2019 saw the transfer or reshuffling of principals and school heads in the local Department of Education schools.

Just like in the musical chairs game, different heads of schools hauled themselves to their respective new school assignments to the cheers of welcome or tears of goodbyes by their colleagues.

Is this occasional practice of leadership turnovers something to be celebrated? How about the possibility that a leader will stay for life in one school?

There could be both positive and negative sides to changing school leadership assignments. On the positive side, a school head who goes to a new and unfamiliar school should bring with her or him fresh energy to the new assignment. It gives a leader a new chance to resolve to lead better.

A school head has another chance to implement projects and programs that might not have been done in the previous school for certain reasons. Perhaps the conditions in the previous school were not favorable or conducive to new ideas or changes while the new school is very ready to embrace innovations.

School heads may also discover that they can perform better in a new environment with another set of colleagues. They may find out they can work better in a new campus with another workforce.

Transferring to and leading another school encourages a leader to try different leadership styles in changing environments.

It also challenges a leader to develop new skills, perhaps learn another language or people-to-people strategies, with a different cultural community, or a new set of parents and community folks.

Transferring to a different place also develops traveling skills and home and family management techniques, especially those with families and previously settled in their own homes.

If school heads do not bring their whole families to their new places of assignments, certainly the need to keep their respective families running normally despite the change will be challenging.

The rotation of school heads may also give teachers opportunities to start afresh with new bosses. Perhaps one teacher did not have a good working relationship with the previous supervisor. Now she or he can try exploring a new partnership.

Of course, the boss may have also left another teacher who was hard to deal with. These things always work both ways.

On the not-so-favorable side, transferring to another school has practical consequences.

It means leaving one’s comfort zone, friends and dependable colleagues. It means making new plans about living arrangements, finding a house or cottage and furnishing it. It also requires fixing an office stamped with personality.

It also means adjusting to a new place, new people and workmates. It requires understanding the work culture and ethics of the new campus and community. And this has to be done as soon as possible. And there will always be people who are difficult to work with, or just plain difficult.

So perhaps it is not really that school heads are reshuffled, but that glitches in working relationships are resolved and sharing of ideas encouraged. Still, the idea of a fresh start is promising.

So there will always be at least two sides to any change. Yet, as we always hear, change cannot be avoided. We should then welcome change and hope it will make us better, not bitter. Sabi nga sa isang awit: “Tatanda at lilipas rin ako, ngunit mayrong awiting iiwanan sa inyong alaala dahil minsan tayo’y nagkasama”.