Qualification for school headship

I thank Christopher Bezzina for taking time to write so profusely about my opinion that the time is not right to start thinking of raising the current qualification for school headship (July 22). I respect his opinions though I do not necessarily agree with them. However, some points need clarification.

Firstly, he says that people who have an equivalent degree (to the Diploma in Education Administration and Management of the University of Malta) or better, can apply for headship and, if one has a Master's degree one will be considered more favourably.

Presumably, this statement refers to a recent report by the Ombudsman in which he admitted his inability to alter a decision by a PSC Selection Board to refuse a Master's degree from Leicester University as a valid qualification for local headship because the specific qualification required was the Deam of the University of Malta.

He, however, recommended that in future the Education Department should not be so restrictive and accept higher qualifications. As a result, the Education Department, in agreement with the Malta Union of Teachers, added the words or equivalent qualification to the Deam requirement. However, the burden of proof of equivalence and comparability rests with the applicant and it is easy to envisage that a number of Master's degrees will still be considered as unacceptable.

Secondly, he complains that the current diploma programme is not even a post-graduate one. He might be interested to learn that in recent years the diploma course has undergone a number of changes which have brought it in line with post-graduate qualifications. It now only remains for the university administration to list the Deam as a post-graduate diploma.

Thirdly, he suggests that we should listen to what current and past candidates have to say about their preparation for headship. But, of course, we do. In two months' time I shall be convening an MUT conference for school administrators in which heads currently in post in state, Church and independent schools will talk about different aspects of their job requirements (as specified in the official A-Z list of heads' duties) and discuss them with other heads and assistant heads. This will not only give a clear picture of what the post of school head entails in the reality of the school situation, but will also indicate, by implication, how well the heads have been prepared for it.