HR strategy is a road map for addressing an organization’s most pressing issues through people-centred solutions. A sound human resource strategy acknowledges that people are the most important single factor in any education system. It therefore emphasises the significance of recruitment, talent management, compensation, succession planning, and corporate culture. A system may have all the resources needed for educational business to happen but if there are no human beings to use and mediate those resources, very little teaching and learning will take place. This is particularly important in open schooling where all the functions in the organisational value chain need to be carefully managed and directed. Each person is unique and contributes in particular ways to make an open schooling system functional.

Learning outcomes

By end of this unit, you will be able to:

1. Explain the importance of human resources in open schooling;
2. Identify key personnel needed for open schooling to function smoothly in your context;
3. Advise how to recruit and retain staff in your organisation.

Stop and Think

Table 6 below shows people you would expect to find in a conventional face to face school. In the column on the right, make a list of people you would expect to have in an open school.

Table 6: Comparison of staffing in a conventional and in an open school

You may have included the following positions on your list of open school staff, and perhaps a few more in the blank lines provided in the table:

Director/Principal, Regional directors, HODs, Full time tutor coordinators, part-time tutors, instructional designers, IT specialist, Counsellor(s), Finance officer, registry officer(s)

Personnel in an open school depends on the delivery mode used. A technology-enhanced delivery mode will obviously require fewer but more specialised staff as most processes are likely to be more automated than in a paper-based delivery mode.