GREAT LAKES ACADEMY LIMITED
Business Strategic Plan
(Great Lakes Academy Secondary School)
2017-2018
Prepared By:
Executive Management Board
Forward
This document shall be adapted temporally for the duration of the starting up the school. The budget estimated here below in this documents shall be reviewed and give out the correct figure of the budget.
Table of contents
Company Overview 4
Background 4
Vision 5
Mission 5
Business opportunity and needs 5
School description 6
School services 7
An Overview 7
Students learning 8
The market 8
An Overview 8
Rumbek Town Demographic information 9
Marketing Overview 9
Branding Strategy 10
Management and staffing 10
An Overview 10
Executive management 11
Academic staffs 11
Support staffs 11
Operational plan 12
Operational overview 12
Sources of finance 13
Risk analysis 13
Financial plans 14
Company Overview
Background
Great Lakes Academy Limited is the educational company officially registered in 2016 by the ministry of Justice, Republic of South Sudan. It focuses on the education sector, pre-primary, primary, secondary as well as technical and vocational schools.
The company is a full national company owned and managed by the South Sudanese and shall be carrying out its operational plans inside south Sudan and abroad. Education is the most effective weapon against poverty and social enigma as our motto says “Imparting quality Education is the best Investment option”.
Vision
The vision of the Great Lakes Academy Limited is to invest in education and committed to open life-changing opportunities to young people and general public through provision of quality education in a most affordable and reliable cost.
Mission
Our mission is to bring good quality education closer to the community at a cost-effective scheme.
Business opportunity and needs
There is acute shortage of secondary education in Western Lakes State in particular and South Sudan in general. Primary education is the first priority of the government and this is shown by the fact that number of primary schools has tremendously increased at a marathon speed in the last 6 years since independent of South Sudan while number of secondary schools remained few or increased slightly.
Though open and sustain the few available secondary schools, quality of the education provided in those schools remains a big challenge. Many families who can afford to pay the quality of education that their children may get couldn’t find so easy to get school at a short distance. Instead, they sent their children to either Kenya of Uganda which may cost them a lot of money to spend.
However, Great Lakes Academy Limited which is the educational oriented company sees this gap and wanted to bridge it by establishing a secondary named Great Lakes Academy Secondary School or “GLASS” in Western Lakes State (Rumbek) that would reduce the cost of sending children abroad for studies.
The school will be committed to inspire student to achieve the highest standard of intellectual and personal development through a stimulating and comprehensive education program. The emphasis will be on sciences (Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and Physics) and English.
Generally speaking, the lack of quality education has had a detrimental effect on society and its development. There is no availability of a good education centers even for the families who can afford it.
School description
Great Lake Academy Secondary School, a truly English medium secondary school, is a start-up high quality educational institution. It will operating in a rented premise for at least one to two academic years after which it will be transferred to it campus once the construction is completed. It will allocate in the heart of Rumbek town to which it will be accessible to students who would like to enroll in it.
The school will have two main sections, the “Art and Science section”, each with serval department. The number of students to enroll is anticipated to reach 500 or more by the end of 2018/2019 academic year.
School services
An Overview
The school will offer an ideal setting for student to get quality education. Each student shall be treated as a valuable customer expects the best learning environment. Teachers and other employees of the school will be treated with respect.
Students learning
Student learning activity deals with the designed and implemented academic calendar which shall be in confirmative with government school’s calendar. Students who are seemed to be excelling in sciences shall have their tuition fees reduced by the agreed percentage set forth by the school executive management board.
Teaching and student learning will be assessed on a regular basis. Students and teachers performance shall be assessed too. Teachers will be given adequate resources and facilities to upgrade and refine their teaching skills.
A well-defined process will be used to recruit and admit students. A screening test will be given to ascertain knowledge and deficiency for the incoming students. The process will enable the school to identify the fitting students and those who may need some remedial work to in order to get up to speed with the rest of the students.
The market
An Overview
The likelihood of rapid expanding service industries has put a heavy labor market demand for graduates with higher levels of knowledge and skills. The secondary education is the basic foundation for almost any kind of knowledge and skills. This has resulted in a huge demand for secondary education South Sudan. In Western Lakes State, There are two categories of secondary schools—government schools and private schools. Private schools account for about 70% of the secondary enrollment. Private schools are funded completely through school fees and donations. Government schools are not enough to accommodate the large number of primary school graduates.
Rumbek Town Demographic information
Rumbek is the headquarters of Rumbek Central County and is the capital of Western Lakes State, one of the twenty eight (28) states of South Sudan. Following the peace agreement ending the Second Sudanese Civil War, the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement chose Rumbek to serve as the temporary administrative center of the Government of Southern Sudan.
Rumbek is approximately 377 kilometers (234 miles) by road northwest of Juba, the capital and largest city in the country. Its coordinates are 6.81°N 29.68°E and its elevation is 420 meters (1,380 ft) above sea level. Its demographic information has been persistently controversial as UNOCHA in 2004 estimated the population to be 82,500 persons. Meanwhile in 2008 Sudan fifth Population and Household census, the population reduced to 32,100.
Marketing Overview
Great Lakes Academy will use a dynamic marketing campaign to achieve branding and promote visibility in Rumbek town as well as in greater Lakes State. The school plans to initially establish brand visibility within the local community market of Rumbek town and eventually expand into the greater Barh El Gazel region.
Branding Strategy
Great Lakes Academy will bring to educational market a high quality educational experience by providing excellent facilities and service to students and teachers. The branding objectives for Great Lakes Academy will focus on building credibility for its high quality education at a competitive price, backed by highly qualified teachers and an active learning infrastructure. The school will strive for exposing students to the latest education and technological evolution. It will establish collaboration with Rumbek University of Science and Technology. University Students will be doing their internships (teaching practices) at the school. The school will hope to build a reputation for its educational program. The Great Lakes Academy’s brand will eventually convey the following five strategic goals:
· Excellence in well-rounded education
· Focus on quality and relevance
· Educational accessibility to poor students
· Excellent learning and teaching environment
· Quest for excellent
Management and staffing
An Overview
Great Lakes Academy will conduct a nationwide search to recruit an able, personable and well-qualified academic staff in future. The school will work to hire and to keep highly qualified teachers. The school will make use of recruiting services nationwide in order to find good teachers. The school will carefully hire new workers due to the special needs of the nature of the work—dealing with students and their safety. Extensive background checks will be conducted on all potential staff and teachers to verify academic and criminal records and their social skills. Extra care will be taken to ensure that new workers represent their background and skills honestly.
Executive management
The executive management is the highest authority in school. It will be comprise of principle, Headmaster, academic registrar, Deputy Headmaster and Finance officer. The resolution passed by this authority shall be final.
Academic staffs
Academic staffs are those who are entirely involved in teaching. This body shall be the second authority of the school.
Support staffs
Due the nature of the work in School, the executive management, which the highest organ of the school together with academy board will recruit support staffs to fill the position of ICT, Accountant, cleaners, guards etc.
Operational plan
Operational overview
Traditionally, the secondary school’s academic session in South Sudan starts in February. However, according to the current plan, the school will start the operation in late Feb or early march 2017. It is estimated that it will take about one month to complete the necessary arrangements.
Transitional plan
It has been stated early that the school will be operating in the rented premises for at least two academic years. The transitional plans shall be implemented once the funding is secured. It is planned that the school will be moved to it permanent campus by the end of the 2018/2019 academic calendar.
The necessary arrangements that should be done include the purchase of land, construction of classrooms, office block and teachers’ squatter and furnishing.
Administration reporting chart
Capacity of the facility
The capacity of the school will be keeping on increasing yearly at a certain percentage (40%) as calculated below:
class / 2017/2018 / 2018/2019 / 2019/2020Senior1 / 150 / 210 / 294
Senior2 / 100 / 140 / 196
Senior3 / 100 / 140
Senior4 / 100 / 140
Total / 250 / 550 / 770
Financing and growth strategy
Accounting and other related operations will be stream-lined. Best-practice accounting techniques such as activity-based accounting will be used to manage expenses. A proper separation of duties and responsibilities will be maintained in financial and other areas.
Sources of finance
At the initial stage, the main source of finance for the schools will come for the shareholders of the Great Lakes Academy Limited. The shareholders will raise a sum of SSP, 150,000 to fund the school operations for the academic year 2017/2018. However, from 2018/2019 onward, the sources of finance will be from tuition fees, donations and other charges that students are liable to pay.
Risk analysis
The risk associated with this venture is very negligible. The primary source of risk is related to the future uncertainties about the need and provision for quality education in Western Lakes State and economic uncertainties that our country is heading to. The market demand for secondary education is growing rapidly throughout South Sudan. More families have high enough income to provide good education to their children. The management believes that the market opportunities are significant and the chances for success are excellent.