Pemimpin, Inspirasi, and Global School Leaders

We utilize online training for school leaders in Indonesia and Malaysia to address the well-being and learning needs of students

There is a learning crisis. A recent study in Indonesia showed that only 11% of senior secondary school graduates can answer questions they should have learned in the 4th grade. This dismal rate of learning has meant students earn less, live less healthy lives, and are less productive citizens.

School Leaders are critical to turning schools into learning institutions. A study across 65 countries, including Indonesia and Malaysia, shows that moving from a poor to good school leader is equivalent to 3 extra months per year of learning per child.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the critical role that school leaders play. School leaders are uniquely positioned to have the respect and relationships to guide families on how to support their children during this crisis.

During the pandemic, our program in Malaysia piloted online training of 75 school principals with promising signs of success. The program was one of the largest online cohorts in the country where over 200 teachers from these 75 schools participated and we saw results in shifting school and student outcomes. 

Our solution is to bring together at least 200 schools from Malaysia and Indonesia to further pilot and scale school leadership capacity building delivered using online tools. The leaders from Malaysia and Indonesia will come together over a year to attend sessions and professional learning communities (PLC) discussions where they will be supported in their role to guide teachers to better support students in the recovery stage of the pandemic. 

In Malaysia, the pandemic has left a great impact on students causing approximately 705,000 (15%) students nationwide to be absent from schools since re-opened on 24 June 2020; and approximately 1.6 million (36.9%) students have not been participating in online learning. In addition, for the past 20 years, Malaysian students have been performing below international standards and studies demonstrated that despite going to school for an average of 12 years, Malaysian students get only about nine years’ worth of meaningful education. Realising this, only 6% of Malaysian schools are receiving assistance to undergo transformation initiatives, This minimal progress is largely due to the government’s lack of focus on capacity building of its human resource where recent OPEX trends in year 2018 revealed a 89% decline in allocation for teacher’s professional development making each educator receiving approximately RM0.42 (USD0.10) a day for capacity building. 

In Indonesia, There are 3,2 million teachers and 321,000 principals, with less than 40% of whom meet competency standards. Professional Development (PD) supports are typically one-size fits all workshop gathering in only a few times a year, making them unhelpful for teachers/principals to resolve their pressing difficulties. This contributes to Indonesia’s  consistent low performance in PISA score. 

In Malaysia, we work with the underperforming schools in the country. These schools have at least 30% of their students from the lowest income bracket. Our findings in our work shows us that school leaders struggle to contextualise the types of support they can provide to their teachers, especially during this pandemic. Given that the education gap in Malaysia has already existed pre-pandemic, the next year will be crucial as schools work with their students to guide them to recover learning loss. 

In Indonesia we work with  elementary school principals from three provinces/districts of different characteristics (industrial, trading and agricultural societies). Our program contextualizes the local needs in at least two ways. First, we select sub districts with lower than average student learning levels that do not have any prior or ongoing similar program. Second, we undertook baseline surveys to understand the problem better at student, teachers, or school leaders level, and discuss the baseline results with a selected representative of our beneficiaries to develop suitable training programs. Similar to findings in Malaysia, recovering significant learning loss is a priority of needs identified. 

The Challenge aims to increase learning for students from underserved communities in SE Asia. We believe that one of the key enablers of increased learning for students from underserved communities is strong leadership at the school level. 

Attempts to build the capacity of school leaders have largely relied on face to face interactions to be successful. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to pilot online training for school leaders and we believe that these modalities are here to stay, in large part because the satisfaction ratings we have gotten in our online engagement has met or exceeded our in-person ratings.  

Our solution equips school leaders with necessary tools, framework and strategies to lead their schools’ effort in learning recovery. With our online training modality, it allows us to reach school leaders who wouldnt otherwise get access such support at scale. 

The “Edtech in South Asia” white paper correctly states that educator capacity-building must be done to complement the impact of any ed-tech intervention. We believe that all educational innovations must consider the role of the school leader as they are often the catalysts, or conversely gatekeepers, of success. Thus any system of education looking to improve its learning outcomes must intentionally train and support its school leaders. 

Cheryl Ann Fernando, Pemimpin GSL

Patrya Pratama, Inspirasi Foundation

Sameer Sampat, GSL 

One infrequently used and potentially cost-effective policy solution for improving school quality is investing more to improve school leadership. 

Recent studies throughout Asia and other low- and middle-income countries have found that school leaders receive inadequate training for their role—as little as two days of support per year (Education Commission, 2019). In Indonesia, school leaders have limited access to continuous professional development. Out of the school leaders sampled, nearly 80% had no central training and approximately 45% had no training at the state or district level between. In India, no school leader completed leadership-focused training in as many as ten states (NITI Ayog). School leaders also emphasized that they rarely draw from knowledge gained from either their advanced degrees or short-term training on school leadership largely because of their poor quality (Lopez & Rugano, 2018). 

Our solution is to offer high-quality training at scale to school leaders in Southeast Asia. We believe our approach can serve as a model that other countries can adopt to significantly improve their school systems. We additionally have set up processes and resources to ensure that the learning from our work can be taken up by others in the region.

In Malaysia, we first launched our online cohort in November 2020 with 75 schools and 200 school leaders. The program aimed to  provide School Leaders with on-going online support for 13 months in key areas of leadership to enable them to lead their schools effectively regardless of unexpected circumstances and crises. The program is divided into two phases, approximately six months each. The first phase was structured in 8 modules and the second phase in 4 modules. We had an 81% completion rate and a net promoter score of 61. Further, we saw large improvements in key leadership skills such as vision-setting and using data to drive instruction. 

The core technology that powers our solution is two-fold: i) what we train leaders on ii) and how we train leaders.

In order to determine the key components of our training program (i.e. “the what”),  we conducted a thorough review of the evidence on school leadership in LMICs. We then developed a set of High-Leverage Leadership Actions (HLLA) that synthesizes key leadership practices identified by our review and our experience training school leaders. Finally, we developed a consultative process with a group of 10 education leadership researchers, our Academic Advisory Council, whose work is rooted in LMICs, to further refine this list.

These focus areas serve as the core, trainable actions that school leaders should focus on. We believe that focussing on each of these areas can help build leadership practice and behavior that sustainably improves student success. The six high-leverage leadership actions we have identified are:

A1 - Observation, and feedback on teaching

A2 - Creating a positive culture of high expectations

A3 - Setting goals and monitoring progress

A4 - Deep knowledge of excellent teaching

B1 - Distributed leadership

B2 - Understanding equity & disrupting inequitable patterns 

In order to determine the key methods of delivery (i.e. “the how”), we have developed the 3C’s framework that  - 1) strong content delivered through workshops that emphasize practical skills and practice-based sessions 2) individualized coaching for school leaders by those who know the context, and 3) community between school leaders in a particular region or country. 

Our theory of change for the online work we have piloted is: If we provide effective SL training programs, Then school leader practices will improve, Then teacher practices will improve, Then student outcomes will improve. 

We have outlined the activities, outputs, and outcomes for this here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OqMTuEIJU473Notd7sfL_zEKjXFEIL6a/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114564896465883691756&rtpof=true&sd=true

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Level

Goal

Indicator

Program Engagement

1. Run program at scale

2. Participants see value in offering

1. Number of participants + students impacted

2. Attendance rate + feedback from leaders (NPS)

School Leaders

3. School Leaders empowered to take action

4. School Leaders equipped to support  teachers 

5. School leaders are able to engage parents to support schools

3. # of action items school leaders commit to and % they complete 

4. % of teachers that receive useful input from their school leader

5. % of SLs and teacher that use data for decision-making

6. % of families that leaders and teachers report to be regularly in touch with

The work described above grounds our approach for the next three years. By the end of this time, we hope to have:

• Partnered with 20 organizations, impacting 6 million children, including 5 organizations that work in SouthEast Asia such as Pemimpin and Inspirasi

• Demonstrated evidence that our training programs improve the skills of school leaders as well as influence student outcomes

• Learned the best ways to influence the field and elevate the importance of school leadership in LMICs amongst researchers, government officials, and policy makers

• Produced independent research that drives change in specific contexts

• Built a network of partners, funders, government officials, and policymakers that work together to solve the stickiest challenges in training school leaders.

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We started this work on scaling leadership training in India where we noticed that school systems had done a great job making progress on enrolling students in school but students weren’t learning as much as expected. We started working with 6 schools in 2013, enrolling them in a 2-year on-the-job training program, and 4 years laters we were working with 800 schools a year. 

We quickly saw our program positively impact outcomes for school leaders, teachers and students. We decided to start an organization, Global School Leaders, that would help catalyze school leadership work throughout the world.

For example, in Malaysia we had a donor that had funded an ed-tech program in thousands of schools in Malaysia say that the ed-tech program would only work if the school leader was strong. They asked us to train their school leaders. When we visited Malaysia, we saw that many of the challenges we faced in India were similar, but there were a few key policy and cultural differences that seemed critical. 

In addition to continuing to support our work in India, GSL also has catalyzed organizations in Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brazil. This application is a joint application between GSL, Pemimpin GSL in Malaysia, and Inspirasi in Indonesia, with  Pemimpin GSL leading this work.

We started this work on scaling leadership training in India where we noticed that school systems had done a great job making progress on enrolling students in school but students weren’t learning as much as expected. We started working with 6 schools in 2013, enrolling them in a 2-year on-the-job training program, and 4 years laters we were working with 800 schools a year. 

We quickly saw our program positively impact outcomes for school leaders, teachers and students. We decided to start an organization, Global School Leaders, that would help catalyze school leadership work throughout the world.

For example, in Malaysia we had a donor that had funded an ed-tech program in thousands of schools in Malaysia say that the ed-tech program would only work if the school leader was strong. They asked us to train their school leaders. When we visited Malaysia, we saw that many of the challenges we faced in India were similar, but there were a few key policy and cultural differences that seemed critical. 

In addition to continuing to support our work in India, GSL also has catalyzed organizations in Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brazil. This application is a joint application between GSL, Pemimpin GSL in Malaysia, and Inspirasi in Indonesia, with  Pemimpin GSL leading this work.

Pemimpin has 10 full-time team members and one part time team member and one intern. 

Inspirasi has 14 full-time team members.

GSL has 10 full-time team members and two part-tim

Cheryl Ann Fernando is CEO of Pemimpin GSL in Malaysia. Cheryl was previously appointed to the National Education Policy Review Committee formed by the Ministry of Education. She formerly served as the Director of Education and Learning at EduNation Malaysia and served as a Teach for Malaysia fellow where she taught in a rural school in Kedah. She also worked a a PR consultant for four years. Cheryl graduated with a degree in Mass Communications and a Master in Management. She also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Education. 

Patrya Pratama is the Founding CEO of INSPIRASI Foundation. In 2010, he taught via Indonesia Mengajar, in a remote village in East Kalimantan. Patrya’s many roles include working with the World Bank Indonesia, as a Special Staff Member for the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, and as a part of the Governor’s Delivery Unit of DKI Jakarta. Patrya holds a Bachelor of International Relations from Universitas Indonesia, and Masters in Public Administration and Masters in Public Policy from Lee Kuan Yew School of Policy. 

Sameer is a co-founder of Global School Leaders. Sameer was the India School Leadership Institute’s (ISLI) first CEO. He also worked as a Project Manager and Research Analyst with the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University. He has also worked with Teach For America, Akanksha and Adharshila Shikshan Kendra. Sameer earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA and completed a Master’s degree in Economics and Education from Columbia University

Our team lead is Cheryl Ann Fernando, the CEO of Pemimpin GSL. Cheryl’s ability to implement new ideas is well documented. As a teacher, Cheryl developed a reputation of being a resilient educator that developed innovations to help the most mariginlized students thrive. Her journey is captured in the popular film, ‘Adiwiraku’ (My Superheroes), one of the first  education-related movies in Malaysia. At Pemimpin GSL, she started her journey at the organization as its only staff member working with 25 schools in 2016, and grew the team to a 10 member group working with more than 200 schools today. Through Pemimpin, she worked to develop one of the first few training programs, called LEAD, for aspiring principals in Malaysia through which PEMIMPIN has been recognized as an official partner with the Ministry of Education.

Global School Leaders (GSL) works with funders, governments, and NGOs to specifically strengthen schools in marginalized communities. We are a non-profit organization focused on mobilizing key stakeholders of lower and middle-income countries (LMICs) to invest and participate in School Leadership training in their country. Our team specializes in building capacity in School Leaders (SLs) through our unique School Leadership Training Program. Our program is a combination of tools, resources, and in-depth consultation specifically designed to address issues faced by School Leaders in LMICs, and help them improve their school’s efficiency, performance and drive better learning outcomes. We have worked with over 3,500 school leaders, impacting approximately 920,000 students. We work with partners in India (Alokit), Indonesia (Inspirasi), Malaysia (Pemimpin), Kenya (Dignitas), and Brazil (Lemann Center).  During COVID, we have expanded to work in the Philippines (RAFI, Teach for Philippines), Uganda (LGHIE), Nigeria (SEED Schools), and Peru (MINEDU/World Bank). 

While we have many years of experience in working with school leaders to improve outcomes, the pandemic forced us to accelerate our use of technology. Early in this work, we could benefit from the advice of others that are aiming to use technology to scale solutions in Southeast Asia. In particular, we would love to be able to connect peers, mentors, and coaches, and specifically any that have used technology for adult/professional learning.  

Being a non profit, the three organisations - PEMIMPIN, Inspirasi and Global School Leaders - are interested in sourcing for the best talent, be it team members or board members, to help our organisations grow. We want to continously develop our organisations to have wider and more systemic impact in the work that we do.