Challenges in school-based management: Case of a 'cluster school' in Malaysia

Cluster school is a new model established for enhancing educational excellence in Malaysia. By design it requires site-based management operations, but in practice it is not so. Successful operations of such an initiative needs to pay attention to the scope, decision making powers, and open and honest interaction among its members. In addition, it also needs to be focused on aspects related to human resource management, student performance improvement, fund management, and educational process transformation. Findings indicate that successful implementation of the cluster school initiative needs a three-pronged approach: learning and mental reorientation on the part of the school community to accommodate the new concept of school-based management; autonomous decision making powers bestowed on the school administration to make decisions in areas such as teacher recruitment and student selection for effective results; and transformational leadership development of school heads to lead the changes. (c) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.