Educational administration in Toronto : a description : in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to describe the administration of secondary education in Toronto. As New Zealand is making a dramatic change in the administration of its education system, it could be useful for New Zealand teachers and administrators, struggling to interpret, and reconcile, the intentions of the government, the demands of lobby groups and the instructions of boards of trustees, to take a brief look at another system. The major change in Tomorrow's Schools from the system that predated it, is the locus of control. The degree to which control, over a significant number of facets of the education delivered in the classrooms has shifted, is remarkable in itsetf, but the fact that the shift occurs in a single event, makes it more so. In the past, New Zealand has been cautious and conservative in its approach to educational change. It had not embraced the progressive decentralisation of many aspects of educational administration seen in Australia, Canada, United States and Britain over the last twenty years. Then in one act, New Zealand has created what could be described as one of the most decentralised systems of school management of all of these countries.