‘Intelligent schools’: what does it mean?

In the book  ‘Policy and Practice in Education’ which I am currently reading, by Jim O’ Brien, Daniel Murphy and Janet Draper, the concept of “Intelligent School” strikes me as a particularly useful concept to think about school improvement that is so urgently needed in India. Around the year 1999 Scotland redefined the organizational structure of the improving school and made providing a good education for their pupils the core mission for each school, terming this new school an ‘Intelligent school’. This self- aware model of schooling envisages a community in which both teachers and learners are aware of what makes for effective and successful learning. In this kind of model the teachers and the learners are open to new learning and are open to respect the diversity involved in learning and work with and for each other to develop a healthy climate of mutual support and respect.

 I think ‘Intelligent School’ doesn’t mean producing good examination results only. School should not be working as an organization that needs to be constantly monitored and evaluated by an external body instead, it should be intrinsically motivated to develop within itself quality learning and development among students, teachers, head teachers and managements with the main aim of bringing wholistic development.

I agree with the Scottish concept of the ‘Intelligent School’. In India there is no such concept of intelligent school, but it can be developed by adapting some features of ‘Scottish Intelligent School’, some features of ‘successful schools’ of other countries and by setting and implementing some new norms to make a school an ‘Intelligent School’. Here I have shared some of my own thoughts to make Indian schools ‘Intelligent Schools’, they are:

Ø  Shared vision: every member of the school must understand, share and contribute to the vision of school, otherwise will not be able to achieve its goal.

Ø  Team learning/team building: sharing of ideas and learning should be important for a school.

Ø  Practice skill among each individual so that it is internalized.

Ø  Develop the school system as a whole, not in separate parts.

Ø  Encourage school members in teams to develop mental models that are more realistic in work place.

Ø   Role of teachers and school heads need to change.

·         They should keep up their reading and writing habits.

·         They should update their knowledge time to time.

Ø  Each and every member of the school community should learn and be aware of new technologies.

Ø  School administrators need to be transformed to school leaders.

Ø  Active participation of community and parents should be encouraged for a successful school.

I need everyone’s suggestions and comments to make Indian schools more effective, therefore I put a question here, What steps should be taken to make Indian school an ‘Intelligent school’?