Making schools count

Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday December 6, 2021 06:00

The goal is to push a large proportion of learners into proficiency. But, alas, history is littered with a good number of school principals who have miraculously managed to switch from one school to the other but have very little with little to show. How they continue to escape the chop is nothing less than a miracle. However, one must hasten to note that failure to accomplish the mission does not mean one is not putting enough efforts. Most school principals if not all are hardworking souls.

They try to bring their best selves to the schools. Schools are busy places. At the beginning of every academic year, schools as required, do invest resources and time in strategy formulation. Just like other government departments, schools develop a shopping list of initiatives and measures supposedly to address challenges and gaps identified.

However, the biggest challenge lies with execution of strategies. The truth of the matter is that schools hardly ever find time to implement and execute their strategies to the letter. More often than not, schools find themselves in the wrong jungle, doing things they never planned for. This sometimes means energies and resources could be spent on pushing initiatives and tasks, which are unconnected to the classroom. As Rachel E. Curtis and Elizabeth City put it, “schools and school systems are noisy places. Crises, big and small, come one after another. Local, state, and national politics (with all the interests they represent) add to the din” schools just like other entities are primarily distraction driven.

There are too many pressing challenges demanding the attention of schools.

For example, school principals have to contend with endless demands for data/information and responding to numerous emails and letters from external factors. Dealing with delinquent students also keeps school principals on their toes. At the end of the day, schools are preoccupied with addressing short-term disjointed initiatives dictated by the ever-changing circumstances. Often external issues requiring attention do not necessarily advance the cause of learning. Strategy formulation as things stand has become a compliance exercise intended to satisfy external factors. This explains why strategies developed do not yield desired results. Unplanned powerful distractors always find a way of derailing plans. It is clearly evident that running modern schools is no picnic.

It is an intricate and complicated undertaking.

The post of school principal cannot be taken lightly. The job requires someone with extra ordinary abilities. Someone who can juggle well time between core and none core business. Consequently, there should be a deliberate plan to develop school principals. A full-fledged school principal centre should be instituted to grow and raise a pool of effective school leaders. Principals cannot be reduced to mere figureheads.

They are strategically positioned to be agents of change.

They are duty bound to raise the red flag when the schools are sliding into the wrong forest. Confronting wastage of resources and stopping ineffective practices cannot be an easy task. It takes courage and vision to panel beat things, which are not working well for students. School principals are human beings too. They have fears just like anyone. Losing peace is one the many fears that school leaders harbour. Generally peace is maintained where a laissez-faire atmosphere reigns supreme, where there is no accountability and where people are left to their own devices to do business as they please.

So change can steal peace. Change is energy sapping as much as it is demanding and laborious. It is really tempting and convenient for school principals in the interests of ‘peace’ to turn a blind eye to things that are not good for learners. Who really wants to ruffle feathers in an environment that appears calm? But school principals should have a daring spirit. And principals should never forget that they are duty bound to jealously guard the interests of students. Running schools for results calls for a greater degree of accountability.

And therefore change cannot be avoided. Granted, change is a bloody and painful affair but it is the right thing to do to help schools find their purpose. Determined and visionary principals know that peace built on a lie is no peace at all. It is important to accept the inescapable reality that change will always unsettle some and attract stiff resistance.

When driving the instructional agenda, school principals must never compromise the teaching and learning process. The big agenda is raising the quality and rigour of instruction.