A study of the preceding characteristics will help us to make our institutions effective, innovative and adaptable. Some of the other ways of making institutions effective are discussed here.
(1) The major aim of educational institutions should be excellence which could imply that students become independent, creative thinkers, learn to work co-operatively and attain mastery over basic skills.
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(2) Institutional improvement has been described by Velzen (1985) as a systematic, sustained effort aimed at changing learning conditions and other related internal conditions in the institution, with the ultimate aim of accomplishing educational goals more effectively.
(3) A ‘whole institution’ approach to improvement and the active involvement of staff in the development of an improvement plan and its implementation are essential if the goal of improving the quality of the institution is to be achieved.
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(4) The institutional system should become more open and offer both parents and the larger society better information about the institution which serves them. This enhances the prestige of the institution and improves accountability.
(5) Self-evaluation of the institution to improve its quality is a necessary but not sufficient activity. There should also be some external audit programme with an emphasis on total quality.
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(6) The system of appraisal should help all teachers in their professional development and career planning and shot Id help the managers of teachers in the decisions they have to take about appointment, assignment, confirmation and promotion.
(7) Quality will flow from the use of resources in committed and effective ways.
(8) Institutions must set up systems that aim to measure their performance. Better management of institutions requires a realization that if you manage to define more clearly where you want to get to, there is an equal obligation to try to identify whether you reached there. This is an internal management function, an internal process to help the institution attain its own objectives.
(9) The staff needs to work together on the articulation of an institutional development plan relating objectives to available resources and seeking to develop means of establishing how well the pre-determined objectives are actually being fulfilled.
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(10) Judgement about quality should refer to different, but closely related aspects such as the goals or functions, the contents, the processes, the effect and the conditions or means.
(11) Rewards, praise, encouragement and appreciation should be used more than punishments.
(12) Institutions should provide good working conditions for students and for their teachers, be responsive to students’ needs and provide buildings that are well cared for and well decorated.
(13) Ample opportunities should be given to students to take positions of responsibility and to participate in the running of the institution and in the educational activities within the classrooms.
(14) The teachers should provide good models of behaviour exhibiting good time-keeping and a clearly apparent willingness to deal with students’ personal and social problems.
(15) The teachers should plan and prepare their lessons in advance, keep the attention of the whole class, manage to maintain discipline in an unobtrusive way, focus on the rewarding of desirable behaviour and take swift action to deal with any disruption by students.
(16) The principal should be able to relate to parents and students, be a public relations person, cope with uncertainty, motivate staff in the absence of substantial instrumental rewards to offer them, be a financial manager, have a robust psychology, be entrepreneurial and be able to cope with rapid changes.
(17) Any attempt for institutional improvement should use the ‘bottom up’ approach, in which improvement attempts are owned by those within the institution who have practical knowledge about the institution.
(18) Create constancy of purpose towards improvement of students and service. The objective should be the best quality students capable of improving all forms of processes and becoming productive members of society.
(19) Reduce dependence on testing to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspections on a mass-basis by providing learning experiences that create quality student-performance.
(20) Improve, on a continuous basis, the system of student learning and service, to improve quality and productivity.
(21) Adopt and institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be appropriate and optimum utilization of material and human resources to perform a better job.
(22) Drive out fear so as to create an environment that encourages people to speak freely in order to improve their work effectiveness
(23) Institute a vigorous programme of education and self-improvement for everyone.
(24) Put everybody in the institution to work so as to accomplish institutional effectiveness, improvement and development.