*This improvement initiative was under the supervision of TAMAM coaches in Sultan Qaboos University and in the ministry of Education.
The TAMAM team at Hail Al-Awamer School for girls (grades 10-12) consists of the principal of the school, four science teachers (two from each of chemistry and physics), one English teacher and one Arabic teacher in addition to one social studies teacher.
The TAMAM school team formed a support team comprised of various schoolteachers from the elementary division in addition to members from the Mothers Committee at the school. This support team was assigned a number of specific tasks such as following up on preserving the school books, keeping the schoolyard clean throughout the school day, guidance in the proper consumption of electricity and water, and encouraging the act of preserving school property. This was highly observed from the increased electricity and water bills, neglect of public facilities, and the unclean state of the schoolyard after the break, especially during the school day, in addition to the improper way some students use the toilets.
After analyzing the data, the team realized that there is a great need to intervene in order to raise the level of responsibility of the students towards the school environment and facilities since the student spends more hours in school than at home.
To achieve the purpose of this intervention, roles were distributed among the team members and timetables were determined for the implementation of the plan of the intervention. We have come a long way in attending to the packaging and preservation of the textbooks as well as making students understand the importance of doing this in addition to the importance behind attending to the yard and school facilities. Meanwhile the Mothers’ Committee seeks mothers to fully support the school by taking charge of attending to the washroom issues. Throughout the journey, we did face some bumps and obstacles that we had to overcome such as the difficulty in coordinating the team’s responsibilities to share updates and plan for upcoming steps and this was due to the nature of the team members who belong to various specialties. For overcoming this issue, two sessions were determined per week in the purpose of coordination. More so, the negative attitude that is felt from the students shows that more needs to be done in order to reach our destination.
Accordingly, the team of elementary teachers conducted awareness lectures, competitions between the classes and various radio programs and meetings with the Mother’s Committee to clarify the initial plan for implementation of the intervention and the duration of the tasks.
During our journey, we have applied many of the TAMAM Pillars, the most important ones are evidence-based decision-making, inquiry and de-privatization of practice.
