Nirmala Liyanage

Supporting Statement Since 1994 when I joined Museums College, in Sri -Lanka as an Advanced Level Economics and Accounting teacher, my passion for education only grows stronger. Today I enthusiastically apply for the position as Principal at one of the most prestigious schools in Oman. I am confident that I can bring new, innovative ideas and strategies for the management of the school. At Leighton Park International School, Colombo I served as Accounting and Economics teacher for four years and went on to work as headmistress for two more. Thereafter, I worked as an education consultant from 2006 to 2013. My passion for school management continued to grow during my time as an education consultant, which eventually led me to becoming the Deputy Principal at Lyceum International School, Wattla in 2013 and eventually the first Principal at Northwood College in 2015. In 2016, I received an opportunity to be a faculty head at a university overseas and, with the belief that the next stage of my career should focus on Higher Education; I accepted the offer to serve as the Faculty Head of the Business School at the National College of Automotive Technology, Oman. After serving in this role for the next two years, in 2018, I received another offer to become the Principal at the Sri Lankan School, Muscat in Oman. With my true passion always lying in the school education system, I accepted the role in 2018, which I still serve in. I believe that my experience in managing educational programs within schools can be utilized in your school to assure education quality and etiquette. I have experienced in my profession that teaching-learning processes are understood as just a transfer of knowledge from one party to the other. Teachers often misjudge the level of understanding of students, student age, personal issues and environmental factors when developing their teaching methods. As a result, teachers often find themselves facing an abundance of pressure in their working environment from school management, superiors, and even parents. Due to this, I personally believe that the teaching- learning process in a school environment should not be defined by traditional modes of knowledge transfer but rather as activities, that is open for constant innovation and creativity to build an environment that is empowering, enjoyable, safe, and trusting to both teachers and students. The experience I gained during my time at the National College of Automotive Technology gave me insights on how the school education sector can be improved through technology and as the Principal of the school: I will mainly focus on constructing 21st century education concepts by developing a fair pedagogical approach. Curriculums followed by schools these days are not student centered. They do not focus on student needs and technological advancements in the current era but chooses to focus on delivering theoretical content, diminishing the creative aspects of students. In the modern world, students are not interested in papers. Their demand is not to read books or write answers to a given set of questions. The new generation is interested in everything tech. The current pandemic situation has taken school education to a digital platform. As a result, students are addicted to screens Such as Mobile phones, laptops, iPads and computers and insist on doing everything in a practical and accelerated manner, often disregarding the quality of their work. Moreover, student values and attitudes have seen an exponential change over the past few generations. The level of soft skills and human values such as leadership, teamwork, empathy, respect, ethics, and communication are slowly becoming negligible. Therefore, I would work to ensure curriculums are aligned with these values to make great and global citizens in the 21st century by incorporating these soft skills and values into each subject in a practical manner where school communities can work as a team with the concept of caring and sharing. I hope to utilize this opportunity as a school principal, to create a fruitful environment in the teaching – learning process and avoid the formal learning to increase the success rate of knowledge transfer. I would also focus on the key role teachers’ play in creating successful students. I hope to create an evaluation mechanism to evaluate the performance of the teachers for performance appraisal. This would allow the school management to identify and rectify issues of underperformance. This process would allow the school to adopt certain standards for teaching which would ensure high quality service delivery to create an environment that is student centered and aligned with the teaching processes being implemented throughout the curriculum. I believe that I am a strong candidate for this position as a Principal based on my experience and skills. I am an enthusiastic, effective, and passionate educationist with a proven record for helping the quality development of a school, providing positive learning experiences, and building and maintaining effective management systems. I enjoy sharing knowledge and inspiring both children and adults to take initiatives in their career development. I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to continue the next stage of my career at the institution where my passion for education flourished. I believe that I will be able to utilize my experience both locally and internationally to take the learning experience at MIS to a fully functional 21st Century education.