A comprehensive strategy to transform education
Whole school development (WSD) is a multidimensional approach to educational improvement. It addresses every critical aspect of school functionality and recognises that it is necessary to holistically transform the entire school ecosystem.
WSD is important as it acknowledges that children only learn effectively if the entire school’s organizational system functions efficiently. By strengthening school functionality, WSD helps to:
- Improve classroom delivery mechanisms.
- Create a more supportive learning environment.
- Address systemic educational challenges.
- Develop comprehensive learner support.
- Build community educational capacity.
Intervention is holistic and incremental, and WSD practitioners employ context-specific strategies, with a focus on continuous improvement and sustainable development. Multistakeholder collaboration is often required to achieve objectives.
Four pillars of whole school development
There are four pillars of whole school development:
Leadership and management
This includes strategic planning and governance, effective administration, leadership development programmes, team building and motivation, and youth leadership,
Infrastructure enhancement
This includes basic improvements to infrastructure, such as renovating classrooms and sanitation facilities, making upgrades to school security, and ensuring access to electricity and running water. It also includes the development of specialised education spaces such as libraries, science laboratories, ICT centres, sports facilities, and more.
Curriculum and co-curricular development
This includes content knowledge enhancement, professional growth workshops, teaching skills developments, and learner support.
Learner wellbeing and community engagement
This can include school nutrition programmes, social services access, health and sanitation programmes, medical screenings (for example, eyesight and hearing), and support systems for vulnerable children.
Addressing social ills
The Adopt-a-School Foundation, which a nonprofit organisation that supports the creation and enhancement of a conducive learning and teaching environment in disadvantages schools, says it aims to address a myriad of issues over a period of time, including:
- Strategic planning, leadership, management and governance.
- Educator development, including knowledge and implementation of curriculum.
- School safety, security and discipline.
- Infrastructure.
- Learner support systems in mathematics, science, counselling and more.
- Extra and co-curricular activities.
- The social welfare of learners.
A focus on school safety and social welfare helps to counteract some of the social ills that spill over into schools, including violence. More than a billion children experience some form of violence, with a significant proportion of this happening at schools in the Global South, according to the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town.
The Coalition for Good Schools, a southern-led whole school development initiative, has proposed some sustainable solutions within the educational ecosystem.
Achieving academic excellence
Although academic excellence is not the sole focus on whole school development, it is one of the key outcomes where school ecosystems have been transformed from within.
Kagiso Shanduka Trust’s District Whole Schools Development Programme (DWSDP), which takes a holistic approach to addressing challenges faced by learners, has been credited with improving educational outcomes in the Free State. In 2024, the Free State achieved the highest matric pass rate in South Africa, at 91%. The programme has a solid track record of improving educational outcomes with its DWSD model.
The importance of whole school development
Whole School Development (WSD) recognises that effective learning extends far beyond classroom instruction. The WSD approach aims to strengthen the overall functionality of schools, focusing on improving the broader school environment and the mechanisms by which education is delivered.
The context of learning must be improved as much as the curriculum, and effective school governance is what lies at the heart of a functional school.
Strong leadership and efficient management are critical, and there are day-to-day issues that require effective management, including administration and financial management. There are material resources which need control and maintenance, for example stocks of books, technical resources such as photocopy machines and computers, as well as physical buildings and fields, all of which must be built, maintained and protected.
There are many ways in which companies can get involved, whether they want to make s short-term investment, fund a specific area of work, or collaborate for more sustained impact. Explore the topic further to find out how to invest.