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Meet Delaney Yaqona, Principal of Nukutere College in Cook Islands, sharing his goals for the upcoming regional school leadership summit.
I am excited about the opportunity to be part of the upcoming Regional Summit on Advancing Resilience and Inclusion through Sustainable School Leadership that will convene in Nadi, Fiji, this month.
The summit will be bringing together different people with various educational experiences and cultures from across the Pacific, providing us with the opportunity to learn from our Pacific neighbours through both our similar and different experiences.
I am also keen to hear how the changes in societies outside of the Pacific are impacting our Pacific communities. Most of all, I am looking forward to meeting other principals who will be attending the summit. I believe having that many principals at one venue is a great value in itself, especially as it is an opportunity to share experiences from our own unique island settings with each other.
Working in collaboration has always been a cornerstone of effective leadership and this summit will provide us, particularly as principals, with an opportunity to network on a wider platform which in turn will grow our capacity to be effective school leaders.
The other thing that the summit will allow us to do as school principals, is to network with education leaders from outside of our own school systems. This is very valuable because it is an opportunity for us to hear about the directions that different Pacific Island education systems are taking as we head into the future. This is valuable information that we can use as we plan the future of our own school system.
On a personal level, the summit will be of great benefit to me in terms of broadening my own knowledge base on effective leadership practices through success stories as well as learning experiences from around the Pacific. All these opportunities will allow me to grow and become a more effective leader in my own school setting.
The upcoming summit will be the first since 2012 and I am really excited about the consultation process that will take place once the revised school leadership standards have been established. The process, in my opinion, is an effective way of ensuring that the unique setting of each island community is both valued and respected. I look forward to working with each regional country to see how the Pacific School Leadership Standards can be adapted into each country’s own set of leadership standards or vice-versa.
About the Summit:
The Regional Summit on Advancing Resilience and Inclusion through Sustainable School Leadership is organised by the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Educational Quality and Assessment Programme (EQAP). Through the Summit, EQAP aims to draw on the expertise, experience, and knowledge of the culture and context of the 15 countries in the region, regional and international institutions, donor partners, and international agencies to review the Regional School Leadership Standards.
