School Leaders’ Challenges and Needs in Leading and Managing the Multigrade Classrooms Practice

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue VI, June 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705

School Leaders’ Challenges and Needs in Leading and Managing the Multigrade Classrooms Practice

Jeffri Idris
Institut Aminuddin Baki, Ministry of Education, Malaysia

Abstract-The study focused on the problems faced by school heads and ways to support them in implementing the practice of multigrade teaching. A new policy was recently introduced in the country where public primary schools with pupils’ enrolment of 30 and below had to implement multigrade teaching. Until now, it has been implemented for more than a year that involved 393 schools. A qualitative study was carried out to identify the problems they were still facing and the types of support required by them. The study used an online form sent to their e-mails. Sixty-eight school heads’ open-ended questions responses were used in the analysis. Analyses were based on two major themes namely the challenges and the supports. Both major themes were then given sub-themes to be more focused. Overall, it was found that the major challenges were related to teachers’ knowledge and skills, pupils’ ability and resources. Based on the analysis, it was suggested that continued support to be provided to the schools in terms of the school leaders’ management and leadership aspects. Also, pedagogical competency, curriculum integration and resources management skills of the teachers needed to be supported.

Keywords: multigrade teaching; school leadership; small schools; primary schols, qualitative approach

I. INTRODUCTION

Multigrade teaching is a practice implemented by schools in various countries from all parts of the world. It could be an approach or strategy besides using the normal practice of monograde teaching. In Malaysia, multigrade teaching with standardizad guidelines has been made compulsory for government schools with student enrolment of 30 and below for more than a year ago. Standardized guidelines on various aspects related to multigrade teaching and management were prepared by the Ministry of Education as reference for the schools. Prior to this implementation, the school heads and teachers were given trainings to prepare them. In the implementation process, feedbacks from them were gathered as a means to identify problems or issues faced by the schools. Initial findings concluded that the multigrade teaching practice among the schools needed to be further developed and improved. Therefore, the study is carried out to gather information on challenges faced and identify possible measures to overcome them.

Background of The Study

The education system in Malaysia has introduced a new policy on multigrade teaching practice for all government schools since 2018. Under this policy, all primary schools with pupils’ enrolment of 30 and below were required to set up ‘combined classrooms’ for multigrade teaching.

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