Page 926 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 1990
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effectively promote service; develop customer-friendly systems; recruit, hire, train and promote for service; market service to customers and employers; measure service; give feedback; reward good performance, and link staff development to performance.
The working party is developing a plan by involving all parents, students, schools and sections in discussions about ways of providing the best possible service. This has already begun with a series of activities, including breakfasts conducted under the leadership of the Director of Operations, Mrs Anne Murray, at which departmental officers met with principals to decide how the department could provide a more effective service at schools. There have been regional gatherings for principals with students, staff and school board members. There have also been evening meetings with teachers, ancillary staff, school board and P and C members, for both primary and secondary schools.
Other culture of service initiatives have included the presentation of awards for outstanding service to ACT education, for both teachers and administrators who have made outstanding contributions to both the development of projects and administration in schools. A "Spotlight" column for the Schools Bulletin is being developed as a showcase to display and celebrate examples of the service culture in operation.
So what is this culture of service? According to one of its strongest advocates, deputy secretary for schools within the department, Mr Max Sawatzki, the concept is a way in which the department's good report card can be noted by its clients - that is, the parents and public.
Mr Sawatzki said in an article for the Schools Bulletin of 27 April 1989 that, although the ACT education system is, generally speaking, of a very high standard, there is still the need to "put up" or to demonstrate outcomes and to show more clearly the successes, to prove to the parents and community in general that the system is working well.
He said that the department is optimising the educational experiences of students and keeping the best public education system in Australia at a time of decreasing resources and increasing criticism of the public education sector in general. The department can do this by working to provide the best possible service to its clients and by learning from the service movement - from the worldwide preoccupation of highly successful organisations with the quality of service that they provide, their increasing commitment to the notion of the customer-driven organisation and the realisation, even in businesses which have not previously - - -
Mrs Grassby: They all have prepared speeches.
MR STEFANIAK: Shut up, Ellnor.
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