Listening to governors

Three different faces of international school governance

Russell Spiers meets governors who share their perspective about school governance from international schools in Gambia, Dubai and Myanmar.

A new opportunity

As the founder of iGNIS – the Governance Network for International Schools, which was launched in September 2024 I have been very fortunate to meet members of international school boards from around the world. Our aim at iGNIS is to provide support, advice, inspiration and reassurance for the thousands of people in governance roles in international schools. These people come from Boards of many different shapes and sizes (see ‘Board Types’) They are owners of schools, CEOs of school groups, advisors, Chief Financial Officers of conglomerates and, yes, Governors, Trustees and Members of Council, too.

Learning from governors

I have interviewed a large number of such people so that other members of iGNIS can discover the different ways in which governance happens in schools around the world. Here are some snippets from three of the interviews.

Alpha Berry on dealing with conflicts of interest

Alpha is the Chair of The Board of Governors at Marina International School in the Gambia. Marina is a long-established, not-for-profit school, with over 1,000 children aged 3 to 18, with a board which is fully elected by parents and staff and made up entirely of parents.

I asked him what kind of difficulties an elected board might pose and how these were addressed at MIS.

RS: How do you ensure that parent-governors act in the best interest of the school and approach governance with professionalism?

AB: The issue I guess you are alluding to is the possibility of conflict of interest. That is always there. I mean, because all these parents are invested in the school their kids go to.

We do have a deliberate conflict of interest policy and we ensure at the beginning of every meeting that we go around and ask specifically if anybody is conflicted with the agenda. And if they are, we discuss how we will manage it.

But also, the amount of training that I’ve organised for the Marina board has been substantial and that has helped a lot.

In fact, it has also given us the idea of providing parents who would want to serve on the board, the opportunity to come and attend these board trainings so that they’re sort of ready from day one that they join the Board and are really fit and proper and they will understand their roles and responsibilities before joining.

Navin Valrani on governor priorities

Navin is the CEO of Arcadia Education in Dubai and Managing Director of the Al Shirawi Group. Arcadia Education operates three schools in Dubai and is part of the Al Shirawi business empire, set up by Navin’s father decades ago, which now employs some 10,000 people across the region.

Given that, you might be surprised by his attitude towards governance.

RS: How do you approach the task of school governance?

NV: As governors, we need to remember that education is a personal journey for every child, for every family. And even within a family, two children can have completely different journeys.

And governors need to understand that. Governance is not about sitting in a room and going through PowerPoint slides. This is about lives and children wanting to make better lives for their future. So, I think that’s where, as governors, we need to roll up our sleeves and keep our ear to the ground. It doesn’t happen by visiting a school once a quarter and sitting in a boardroom.

It happens by getting governors really involved, getting them invested in the process. So, when it comes to well-being, for example, how is the governor measuring happiness? I can look at the well-being surveys and come up with a number, but are you really going around and seeing with your own eyes the happiness that exists in the school? Are you there when a football team is playing a final? What are the messages on the school walls?

You know, those are the things that I think governors need to take note of.

Carole Kyaing and Craig Roberts on governance and succession management

Carole Kyaing is the Founder of Network International School in Myanmar and Craig, her grandson, is Director of Business Administration. Since its beginnings in the front room of Carole’s home, Network International has expanded to a point where, today, it educates over 800 students of 26 different nationalities. Now, the time has come to put in place robust and sustainable governance.

RS: What are your current priorities at the moment?

Carole: I’m feeling that the time is right now for me to step back, as the grandmother or whatever you call it, and let the professional side step in.

RS: If you’re wanting to let go a little, it must be a big decision for you.

Carole: Huge, absolutely huge. I mean, ask any mother or father to hand over their baby. It’s hard. But it’s the way. I can see that the school is ready for that now. I’ll still be around, meeting the children in the morning and doing assemblies. I’m not stepping back entirely.

Craig: Obviously, we don’t have much experience with governance and boards and really need to make sure we get it in place properly from the beginning. That’s why we’ve engaged with RSAcademics to guide us about how we should be set up and how it will work effectively. We’re hoping you can help us get the right structures in place and get the right people in place and then we can make sure that it is sustainable for the school’s future. We’re looking at the long-term future.

Carole: I need experienced people in place and I think governance is probably right because they’re not actually in the school, they’re outside. They’re outside, looking in on what we’re doing. Whereas we are still the family who are very close together. But we’ve got to, you know, it’s like sending a child off to university, isn’t it? You’ve got to let them go.

Craig: Ideally, we want an Advisory Board to help guide us in terms of running the school. Is the school still making progress? What are the strategic aims of the school? Are they still within what Carol’s vision is of the school?

That’s kind of what we want. And we want the Advisory Board to advise the family and say, look, this is what’s going really well. This is what we think the school could do to improve.

And we want to work together with that advice and to really push the school forwards in the way that it’s been going for the last 30 years.

Listening and learning

The governors I have been talking to over the past year are from different schools, with different priorities and serving on different types of international school board. However, they have one thing in common – to fulfil the trust placed in them to provide the best possible education for the students in the schools for which they are responsible. By listening to them – and ultimately by listening to each other – we can all learn from what becomes a shared experience. And that’s what iGNIS is all about.

Russell Speirs is the Executive Director of iGNIS – the Governance Network for International Schools. iGNIS exists to facilitate and promote good governance in international schools, whatever their ownership and governance model. It is the first membership network dedicated to the governance of international schools.