After reviewing the development of the Education in Oman in chapter two, it is clear that there have been substantial changes in the expansion of education but there is a need to consider issues of quality. The previous parts of this chapter discussed the structure of the Ministry of Education in Oman, its legislation, remit, size and educational system. As a preliminary to investigate the issues concerning the role of the MOE, a pilot study was conducted. The main purpose of the pilot study, as explained in detail in chapter seven, is to discover the existing issues in the MOE in relation to their role in leading and managing the development of the Omani education system and to help in selecting a suitable method for the main study. The pilot study used four separate semi-structured focused group
interviews; the first group consists of Directors in the MOE Central Headquarters, the second group consists of Directors in the Regional Directorates, the third group consist of the head teachers and the fourth group consist of the teachers. The researcher is a member of the MOE staff but as she needed to collect information from others, she selected the pilot study sample to be as representative as possible. This is especially important as the MOE’s stakeholders are diverse and scattered within the MOE hierarchical system. The Directors in the MOE Central Headquarters play prominent roles in the process of decision making and formulation of the policies. Similarly, the Directors in the regions have major roles in the connection between the field; schools; and the policy makers. Moreover, they are an important part of the decision makers in the regional levels. Head teachers and teachers are the implementers of any development in the school level and usually their contact with the MOE Central Headquarters is through the Regional Directorates. There were four main questions as follows:
1. What are your aspirations for education in Oman?
2. What do you think you/we should do to achieve these aspirations? 3. What do you see as the barriers to change?
4. What would you identify as major problems in relation to the role of MOE?
The following tables show the results from analysing the interviews presented in four themes according to the answers of the four questions.
3.11.1
The Interviewees’ Aspirations
Table 3.1 The Interviewees Aspirations The theme The results
The Interviewees’ Aspiration
• Meet the world wide needs.
• Curricula focus more on science.
• Curricula focus on life skills.
• Education focus on market needs.
• Plan according to the field (schools) needs.
• Open communication between planners and implementers.
• Cooperation between different directorates and within each directorate.
The four groups’ responses were similar to each other. Their aspirations range from general such as meeting world wide needs to specific such as open communication between MOE Central Headquarters and the schools. One of the interviewees stated;
We wish there will be open communication between the MOE Central Headquarters and the schools. Sometimes, very minor issues take a long time to be solved because of the weak or let us say slow communication. This is in addition to the various channels they need to go through (Group three).
The open communication is also related to another point which is centralization in planning and decision making. Many of the interviewees aspire for less centralization. One of the interviewees stated;
The MOE will be more developed and most of the existing problems will be solved if it moves seriously towards decentralization. Regional Directorates are qualified enough to deal with many of the issues that are still centralized (Group one).
Many other aspirations, as shown in the previous table, are focused on planning. Participants stated that they aspire for planning to focus more on schools’ needs and the needs of market forces. They also stated that the curriculum should focus on life skills and more on science as requirements for the economy. One of the interviewees stated that;
Planning in the MOE is central and theoretical, it is born in offices. We want the MOE to have more practical planning based on schools’ needs and we wish to see the decision making less centralized (group three)
3.11.2
Achieving the Aspirations
Table 3.2 Achieving the Aspirations The Theme The Results
Ways to Achieve aspiration
• Understanding change process.
• Cooperation and teamwork.
• Inspired and informed Management.
• Participation of all staff in change and development projects.
• Organizational structure development.
• Creation of shared vision
• Change and development should focus on the MOE objectives.
In their views regarding achieving their aspiration, the four groups of the interviewees focused on three main ideas: management, participation and planning.
The interviewees stated that in order to achieve their aspiration, there must be an informed and inspired management or in other words, supportive managers. One of the interviewees stated that;
To achieve our aspiration we need an inspired and informed management who believe in change and who can support the staff with good ideas and suggestions instead of depressing them (group two).
Another interviewee stated; Managers should also be leaders in a cooperative way
(group two).
The interviewees stated that more participation of staff would be useful in achieving the aspirations and developments. They also mentioned better understanding of the change process, cooperation and team work as means for achieving their aspiration. Moreover, they highlighted the importance of a shared vision between managers and staff. One of the interviewee said;
In order to achieve these aspirations, I think, all MOE’s staff and managers should participate in the development from A to Z. I mean, they should have better understanding of the change process and the reasons behind it and also get informed about the feedback. We always participate in change but then we hear nothing about the results till we start a new change project (group three)
The third idea in the theme of achieving the participants’ aspirations is planning. The participants suggested that development in the MOE should focus on achieving the Ministry’s objectives. Moreover, they said that the organizational structure should develop to support the changes in the Ministry and to solve some of the issues such as the weak coordination between directorates. One of the interviewee stated that;
I think MOE’s organizational structure needs to be developed in a way that makes the different directorates more cooperative and communicative. This might be achieved through adding some departments or directorates responsible for change and coordination between different levels in the ministry (group one).
Another interviewee suggested
If we are about to develop and or implement a change in the Ministry, there is a need for the development to be based on the existing MOE objectives,
otherwise, it will lead us to a different way from where we would like to go (group four).
3.11.3
Barriers to change
Table 3.3 Barriers to change The Theme The results
Barriers to change • Unmotivated workers.
• Lack of communication.
• Weak team work motivation.
• Insufficient management support.
• Various contradictory change projects.
• Unqualified staff.
• Lack of realistic databases.
• Sustaining change projects
The interviewees highlighted various barriers to change. Most of which are related to the role of the managers in development, the staff’s motivation and qualification, the planning of and communication between the development projects.
The interviewees stated that the role of the managers in supporting the change is very important. One of the interviewees said;
The support of managers toward change is essential. The problem we face here is that managers support any new change project at the beginning and then switch to a new change project (group four).
This limited focus on sustaining change projects already set up is an issue. Another barrier to change they highlighted is the staff’s motivation to participate in change projects. They also highlighted an important issue regarding the staff’s qualification and their background education and training which is sometimes not suitable for the roles in the change. One of the interviewees stated that;
Sometimes the staff who are responsible to implement change are not well- trained or qualified for change projects which affect the projects negatively and this also might prohibit the change completely (group three).
Another important barrier that was highlighted by the interviewees is the planning of the change project. One of the interviewees stated that;
The various change projects that are implemented in the field at the same time form a barrier to change. Different projects from different directorates are dealing with the same issue and are implemented at the same time (group two).
Besides the unsuccessful planning, this barrier also highlights the issue of coordination and communication between different directorates.
3.11.4
Major Problems in the MOE
Table 3.4 Major Problems in the MOE The Theme The results
Major problems in relations to the role of MOE
• Unqualified staff.
• Centralization in planning.
• Unmotivated change implementers.
• Lack of communication.
• Unsatisfactory school graduates.
• Repetition of process because of faulty planning.
• Ineffective delegation of authority.
• Subjective staff evaluation.
• Negative interaction between the roles of different directorates.
• Lack of constancy of purposes between different directorates.
• Weak coordination between different projects.
• Unfair human resource development plans.
• Unsuccessful meeting arrangements.
• Ineffective time management.
In discussing the problems that are related to the MOE, the interviewees stated that there are various problems mostly concerned with management, staff, and planning. Various problems mentioned are related to the management’s roles in the MOE. Interviewees said that planning in the MOE is mostly in the administrative level in the MOE Central Headquarters and both the Regional Directorates and the schools are implementers. In their view, this forms a problem as planners are not involved directly with the issues in the field, so they plan change theoretically. One of the interviewees stated;
Managers in the MOE Central Headquarters sit in their offices and plan for a change project. Theoretically, it is perfect but practically it is not working for us (group three).
The interviewees also highlighted some other issues related to management such as the qualification of managers. They stated that some managers are not well-qualified to accomplish their roles. Moreover, interviewees stated that one of the prominent issues in the MOE is the delegation of authority. They pointed out that the managers keep most of the responsibilities to themselves and they delegate authority unsuccessfully. In highlighting this point one of the interviewees stated;
Managers try to be responsible for most of the tasks and when they delegate, they delegate unsuccessfully by assigning the wrong person or the wrong task (group two)
Other problems highlighted by the interviewees were related to staff. They pointed out that the lack of motivation of those to implement change is an issue to be concerned. They also stated that there is unfair staff evaluation and this is due to the unclear evaluation criteria. Moreover, the human resource development is unfair and it is mostly centred in the MOE Central Headquarters and opportunities are not available to others. One of the interviewees pointed out:
The training and postgraduate studies are not fair for all. Most of the chances are for the MOE Central Headquarters’ staff. In the Regional Directorates, staff get very limited chances” (group two).
Most of the problems highlighted by the interviewees were related to planning. They raised the issues of unsuccessful meeting management. When there is a meeting in the MOE Central Headquarters, there is no understanding about staff from other regions and their personal circumstances and the distance between the Central Headquarters and their regions. Another problem that was highlighted is time management. When some tasks are assigned to the staff, either the time is too long for them to be accomplished or too short. This is in addition to the ineffective planning of some projects that causes a lot of repetition and waste of time.
There are some other problems such as weak communication, coordination and interaction between different directorates and within each directorate. One of the interviewees stated;
There is no complete coordination between different directorates regarding development projects which causes confusion in the field and negative effects in the implementation of the projects and in the teaching and learning (group four).
There are some other problems which are discussed before in this section such as the unsatisfactory school graduates. This problem is mostly related to the planning of curricula and education system. It was highlighted that the planning is not concerned fully with the needs of the economy and market forces and so unsatisfactory school graduates are produced.
In summary, aspirations and ways to achieve them; and the barriers to change and problems related to the MOE roles highlighted some other major issues. Most of the issues pointed out the roles of the MOE Central Headquarters in achieving the aspirations and in being responsible for the existing problems. This is because the MOE Central Headquarters is considered as the top level of the Ministry of Education’s hierarchical administration and it is responsible for centralized decision making, planning, management, communication and human resource development. Consequently, the development of the MOE Central Headquarters might help in solving the existing issues and help the MOE to deal with the internal and external challenges and fulfil the Oman’s aims and aspirations.
3.12 Conclusion
The educational history of the Sultanate of Oman has undergone rapid development. It has developed significantly in terms of quantitative issues; the number of schools increased from 3 before 1970 to 1046 in 2006. The quality also increased from religious focused schools to a much wider curriculum using advanced technology in teaching. Now a significant issue facing the Omani education system is to identify the future development and emerging issues and to plan to address these. Although this is significant development, there are some factors that need to be considered to continue the development in the current time such as the internal and external challenges reviewed in chapter one, the nature of the Sultanate of Oman and its impact on education, and the existing issues and problems facing the Ministry of Education. Thus the next chapter discusses various change management theories to find a suitable approach that can help the MOE to overcome the existing challenges and issues.
Part Two
Chapter Four- Change Management
4.1 Introduction
This chapter aims to identify the different approaches of managing change and improvement to critically appraise the various theoretical models in order to find the best suitable approach to develop the Ministry of Education in Oman. This will be achieved through defining the meaning and nature of educational change. Change is a significant issue within the management and administration of educational systems and so it is important to examine this concept in some depth. This chapter will also highlight the importance of the management of educational change and factors affecting initiation, implementation, sustaining change and ensuring that changes become embedded into accepted practice. Moreover, the issues of change in educational administrative organizations are explored drawing from discussions and research in this area. This is in addition to mapping out change management theories, their advantages and limitations with regard to the context of the Ministry of Education Central Headquarters. This chapter concludes with the proposal that Total Quality Management might be a suitable approach for developing the Ministry of Education in Oman.