The Fifth EI World Congress, meeting in Berlin, Germany, on 22-26 July 2007
1. Noting the worldwide increase in demand and the need for quality and variety in secondary school teaching.
Considering:
2. the fierce pressures exerted on this level of education by a rapidly-changing economic, social and cultural environment in which public service may be weakened but is also a recourse and an opportunity for the future;
3. the implementation of decentralization policies that produce upheavals and bring about changes in the role of teachers and school principals and school leadership;
4. the growing complexity of education system and school management demands specific capabilities and skills, which require among other things knowledge, abilities, leadership, management and public relations values and conduct of a high order;
5. that school principals and school leadership have a major role to play in the running of schools and in the coordination of team work with teachers and other education workers, as the key factor in introducing participatory management, partnership searches, and the efficient use and optimisation of resources; and that they are best placed as the chief support for the implementation of commitments to improve learning, education systems and results;
Declares that
6. Management of the education system is not an end in itself. It must be one of an array of instruments working to deliver quality free public education for all;
7. Ensuring that all students, regardless of economic circumstances or geographic location, have access to a comprehensive and challenging curriculum as a right and responsibility of the nation as a whole. While in most countries, its implementation must be nationally directed, EI recognizes that some national governments do not directly establish curriculum.This policy must be supported by the multilateral institutions and international donors and lenders, particularly the World Bank and the IMF. Education must not be regarded as a for-profit sector;
8. Each country must ensure that its children have equal access to education, a fair distribution of means throughout the country through transparent management that involves the partners - the State, local and regional authorities, staff and the trade unions that represent education workers, parents, and secondary school pupils themselves;
9. Decentralization/deconcentration must be supported by a programme to build local capacities, with the central and decentralised levels repositioned in new roles of guidance, assessment, regulation, follow-up-support and coordination in order also to address the requirements of transparency and tackling corruption;
Pledges to promote, at home and towards international organisations, management of educational establishments based on
10. the introduction of structures involving the various partners in teaching, administrative and financial operations;
11. recruitment of school principals and school leadership on the basis of the abilities required and establishing transparent systems and objective criteria that enable staff to be selected and recruited according to a profile of relevant capabilities;
12. the development of sets of benchmark skills;
13. initial and in-service training provision and support and advisory programmes that ensure the ongoing professional development of staff;
14. clearly defined tasks and performance assessments based solely on them;
15. the promotion of local, national and international peer exchanges of skills and experiences, especially through the use of new educational technologies;
16. recognition and enhancement of the status of the management function;
17. material conditions that recognise their responsibilities and support changes in them;
18. establishing a dialogue between school principals and school leadership's trade unions and the State to set the framework of their employment.