Municipality of Sandviken: A Management System for the Education Administration.

The Education Administration in Sandviken municipality consists of 26 preschools, 16 elementary schools, and two high schools. One of the elementary schools is public and one is an independent school. The preschools are divided into three different areas, the elementary schools are divided into four different areas, and the high schools are divided into one unit. The administration also has special needs elementary and high schools. We have interviewed Eva Simonsson about what 2c8 Apps has contributed to their activities.

August 7, 2024

In 2008, Eva Simonsson, then Principal of a special needs school and now Head of Quality at the Education Administration, was asked how she, as a manager, ensures that teaching is based on the governing documents. It was a loaded question that she felt she should be able to answer, but she couldn’t. In 2010, she received an offer to participate as an examiner for the Better School Quality Award, and it turned out to be the beginning of the most important journey she made as a Principal. By the time the examination was over, she had realized that she really needed to get a better handle on processes and that she was in dire need of training, which was the route she then took.

“Working with processes is a way of being ‘lazy-smart’. Doing the right things, at the right time, in the right way, and with the least possible labor input”, says Eva.

Suddenly, the policy documents became very interesting, and Eva read them in a completely new way. How did her school put this into practice? She quickly realized that this was the mission and that this was what she had to steer toward as an educational leader. Her mission was to ensure that robust processes were in place that met the aims and intentions of the policy documents. This needed to be part of the everyday work.

A Software to Prove Quality

In the process work, Eva and the upper secondary school management realized that they needed a tool to draw the processes, which would work together with Stratsys, where they followed up the quality work. That’s when they found 2c8 Apps.

“When the high school started using 2c8 and Stratsys, the Principal realized how easy it was doing the right thing when using the right tool”, says Eva.

It was then decided that the approach should be spread throughout the Education Administration’s organization. Eventually, the entire municipal group realized that it needed digital support systems, and 2c8 Apps was procured to visualize the processes.

The Answer to the Big Question

Eva now felt she was getting there, even though there was still a long way to go. She finally knew what to say when someone asked: ‘How do you…?’.

‘All of a sudden, I could answer: Yes, this is what we do, come and see in 2c8,’ says Eva.