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convenient to organise themselves in groups of this kind and the
system enables the Education Department to consult groups of schools
frequently through their councils or associations on matters of
policy and administration affecting them. On the whole the councils
represent heads of schools rather than management, though they do include
some supervisors and (especially in the case of the Grant School Council)
principals who are also supervisors. There are four associations of
heads or principals of schools of various categories.
3.25
Within schools, organisation is on traditional lines,
strongly influenced by British practice. The managerial roles of
senior teachers are now more clearly defined as a result of a
restructuring of public-sector teaching grades on functional lines:
this was begun in the mid-1970s for government schools, colleges and
institutes, and the underlying principles were later applied to the
teaching establishments of aided schools. Major subjects of the
secondary curriculum are under the control of senior teachers known as
'panel chairman' (subject, in the aided sector, to the overall policy
of the sponsoring, body and the school principal). Other than normal
teaching duties, the main functions of panel chairmen are to co-ordinate
the teaching of a particular subject, supervise and guide their subject
teachers and generally promote the development of the subject: these
responsibilities, which are reflected in rank and salary, are carried
out with varying degrees of efficiency. Some schools designate a
senior member of staff as Prefect of Studies, with general responsibility
for the management of teachers in their professional duties: this post
where it exists, is often complemented by that of the Prefect of
Discipline. Titles such as these are however tending to disappear as
the approach to education implicit in them undergoes change.