THE BACKGROUND AND NEW TRENDS IN IMPLEMENTING SCHOOL BASED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AS A SCHOOL GOVERNING MODEL IN SRI LANKA: LESSONS FROM SRI LANKAN SCHOOLS

Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities

The policy implementers in Sri Lanka introduced ‘School Based Management’ (SBM) system, the Sri Lankan version of ‘Programme for School Improvement’ (PSI) for enhancing the quality of administration of government schools in Sri Lanka in 2006. The main focus of this programme is to enhance the quality of government school management. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the experiences of SDC members on the implementation of SBM. The research site is government schools in the Colombo district. The main research problem is: what is the background and new trends in implementing the PSI in the Sri Lankan government schools? And the specific objectives of the study are: identify the nature of implementation of the PSI; examine the perception of the community members on the implementation of the PSI; and recognize challenges faced by stakeholders in implementing the PSI in the government schools in Sri Lanka. This study used qualitative inquiry, and a multiple case study approach was appropriate to study the main research problem. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select participants in this study. In order to gather data from participants; mainly semi-structured interviews and document survey were employed. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings of this study revealed that the SDC members do not have a proper understanding of school management. There isn’t high-quality participation and sufficient contribution of stakeholders for school development. Schools do not completely follow guidelines issued by the MoESL, when selecting their SDC members. The collaborative decision-making process is not being implemented in the majority of schools. Schools have not been provided maximum authority to make decisions. The government does not provide adequate facilities and resources to schools. Schools have not identified importance of SBTD and its relationship with education development. There is no higher-level supervisory board or monitoring system at ministry. Many opportunities have been opened for outside community members to be involved in school management. Schools have some autonomy for decision making. However, it seems that schools in this study are not completely implementing all the characteristics of the original version of SBM yet.

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