III - Data analysis & discussion of results : 7

Second Area

Impediments to learning enhancement within and outside the school

During the interviews which we conducted with teachers, students and administrators, we adopted a scientific and objective way of exploring the cases under study. A comprehensive and systemic vision was required to analyse the situation through identifying the positive points on the one hand, and exploring the impediments on the other. These impediments can be sketched as follows:

1. Impediments due to the nature of administrative management such as unavailability of staff and shortage of training programs that draw upon innovations in governance and outcome-based management;
2. Impediments due to the shortage of financial resources and lack of moral support to educational institutions ;
   
3. Impediments due to teacher performance , teachers’ unfamiliarity with pedagogical approaches to teaching and assessment and the currently applied standards for recruiting teachers ;
   
4. Constraints ensuing from overlooking the prerequisites for each educational stage, the identification of individual differences amongst learners, learning time management and the acquisition of knowledge, methodological , communicational and cultural competencies;
   
5. Constraints ensuing from qualitatively/ quantitatively overloaded curricula and programs. A high amount of the content of these curricula and programs does not help students meet life realistically and to rise up to the social , cultural and economic challenges;
   
6. Impediments stemming from the standards and characteristics of the architectural nature of the school environment : its in-take capacity, the esthetics and aesthetic appeal ;
   
7. Impediments stemming from the inability of the school to effectively communicate with its socio-cultural and socio-economic environment ;
   

It is worth mentioning here that the absence of effective and efficient ways of administrative management and teaching that will help the public school to successfully meet the challenges it faces is palpable. In view of the foregoing, therefore, this study highlights the prerequisites for ensuring effectiveness in long-term performance enhancement and learning and, by implication, in the educational system itself. These prerequisites can be summarized as follows:

· The status of teachers should be raised as they are essential to the enhancement of learning inside and outside the school;
· The pedagogical engineering of all content-areas, be they scientific, technological or vocational, should be geared towards meeting the current and ever-changing social needs ;
· The re-engineering of curricula and programs that will be able to link students with their community and prepare them for ‘life’;
· The rethinking of the approaches to, and aims of teaching of languages with globalization in its ‘civilizational’, political, economic, social and psychological dimensions;
· The equipment of students with high-order thinking/critical skills as well as facilitative negotiation skills ;
· Further empowering human resources and revisiting the recruitment standards for prospective teachers;
· Adhering to project-based management ;
· Taking an important step forward in effectuating collegial teacher/ peer- teaching/ supervision/ training.