ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT MODEL OF SCHOOL IN ITALY RELATION BY PASQUALE PUCCI

THE MOST IMPORTANT ORGANS OF ADMINISTRATION AND MENAGEMENT INSIDE THE SCHOOL CONSIGLIO D’ISTITUTO; THE SCHOOL COUNCIL DIRIGENTE SCOLASTICO; THE PRINCIPAL DIRETTORE AMMINISTRATIVO; THE ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR

THE SCHOOL COUNCIL It is the political organ of the school where every single member is elected except the principal (member as of right); it is composed of: 8 teachers; 4 parents; 4 students; 2 non teaching personnel; Duty of the school council: approval of the two principal and important accounting documents (Programma Annuale e Conto Consuntivo); the terms of pluriannual contracts; fixation and report of the criteria negotiation activities of the principal; identification of the guide lines of P.O.F.; join to the schools networks etc... Every single session of the school council is prepared by the Giunta: it is a sort of mini council composed of 1 teacher, 1 parent, 1 student and 1 non teaching person and with two members as of right: the principal and the administrative director.

THE PRINCIPAL First of all, the principal is the legal representative of the school (in Italy every single school is autonomous); he or she is a public manager and is the highest hierarch dignity inside the school; he or she has wide negotiating power and is the person who manages the teaching personnel and is also the chairman of all collegial bodies for example teaching body, class councils and subjects meetings.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR He or she is the chairman of non teaching personnel (clerks, caretakers, technicians and other professional figures); he or she is responsible for all the administrative management of the school, for all school resources (for example goods and chattels, stock in trade). He or she responsible for the school budget and for the respect of legal duties of all the personnel that work in the school.

F.I.S. FONDO DELL’ISTITUZIONE SCOLASTICA The “Fondo dell’istituzione scolastica” is a fund by which it is possible to incentive the persons working inside the school to do jobs and tasks out of normal duties; there is often overtime especially for the teachers. The distribution of F.I.S. happens by a contract where the public side is represented by the principal with the help of the administrative director and in the other side there are three worker representatives (the so called R.S.U. Rappresentanze Sindacali Unitarie – Union Representaive Unit)

THE COMMISSIONS Some commissions are constituted to support the management of the school. They generally involve managing specific projects (for example university choices, high school placements, work experiences of pupils among firms and public bodies, improvement of foreign languages, training of the personnel etc...); an important commission is the one that cares about the P.O.F. (Piano dell’Offerta Formativa). The P.O.F. is a document, a sort of identity card of the school in which are indicated all the training plans and programs of the school, the didactic and administrative projects and also the criteria to value the achievement of pupils.

STRENGTHS Autonomy of the school: every school can distinguish from the others by training programs that it offers because it is autonomous (for example arabic or chinese languages – italian culture courses for foreign pupils) or by administrative characters (laboratories, i.t. facilities, etc...) Strong ties of the school with world of work: the collaboration with outside organizations let the school offer training plans that reflect the local work needs (for example course about e-commerce management, about i.t. management, etc…)

WEAKNESS Lack of adequate funds: from the State, to limit the public spending, there is always less money available and the school has not got the possibility to ask obligatory money; it is possible to ask voluntary contributes from students families and for this reason the principal and the administrative director are involved in the search of funds from private individuals or organizations from European Community and local public organizations (for example region, provinces, local community); Differences between the principal and the administrative director: sometimes there are differences between the views or the opinions of the principals and of the administrative director’s ones caused by diversity about behaviours, management methodology of the school etc…;

AREAS OF IMPROVMENTS Management control: in the world of the school it is not so common the culture about the application of administrative actions in terms of efficacy, efficiency, economic efficiency as in other public bodies; Valuation of the two monocratic figures in the school: the work of the principal and of the administrative director is not well understood or estimated and so there is not an incentive for improvements, unclear objects and when the objects are not achieve there is not consequences (it is a lack of); Auditors: the evaluation work could be given to auditors (now in every school there are two representative: one of ministry of education the other of ministry of economics) but now they only do formal control of management of the school and so it is request an increase of their duties and required jobs.

THANKS FOR THE ATTENTION