By Artur Victoria
Each school must be divided into work units. The pupils within each work unit are divided into classes and also, for their everyday work, into groups of various sizes.
The work unit need not comprise classes from the grade. A unit can, for example, be formed comprising pupils from grades I, 2 and 3. The work unit may also comprise classes from different levels.
An arrangement of this kind can often present great advantages. Senior pupils can help junior pupils.
Work units must be more than an administrative division. The aim is for them to be developed into a small school within the framework of the large one.
They must be conducive to close co-operation between staff and pupils.
Essential goals of school work are more easily attained if certain duties within school management districts are delegated to the work units. Duties of this kind include the following.
- The work units have an important part to play in educational planning.They should plan basic training in skills, the work to be done by remedial teachers, the timing of project studies and so
- The work unit is a natural framework for the discussion and planning of support for pupils in difficulty. No problem need be referred to the school pupil welfare conference unless it cannot be solved within the work unit, for example by consultation with parents, by the application of different methods, by the coverage of different subject matter, or by work in smaller groups, individual assignments etc.
- In many cases the work unit is the natural unit in which to agree concerning the scope of the pupils' own responsibilities and their own contributions to the environment, and also to plan free activities. it is often a suitable unit for information to and discussions with parents concerning various matters.
Consultation concerning educational planning and concerning activities during the school year or the term should result in a working plan for the work unit. The Education Ordinance contains provisions concerning the duty of planning instruction and pupil welfare work within the work unit.
The working plan must outline a program and define goals and aims in such a way that it is possible at the end of the school year or term to evaluate activities and agree on any alterations that are to be made to working methods or aims for a future period of activities.
In this way schools are to advance by means of co-operation and consultations between pupils, staff and school management.
The organization of a school into work units makes it easier for teachers to co-operate in teaching teams. Co-operation of this kind between the adult members of the school community is an important example to the pupils of democracy in operation, and it is essential with a view to the consistent and purposive development of skills in different subjects.
Younger pupils can form hobby societies and class societies, and older pupils can develop societies covering a wide range of activities, e.g. sports, music, reading, drama, photography and various ideological topics such as temperance, religion and politics. The vitality of these societies very often tends to fluctuate, but schools can support and activate them by enabling them to participate in various contexts - for example, by contributing programs to school assemblies, publishing articles in a school magazine, putting on exhibitions etc. By giving them financial assistance, by giving various assignments to individual members and, if possible, by letting teachers who are particularly interested become members of the societies. School societies should have extensive powers of initiating free activities within their several spheres.
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