A steady return to normalcy

Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday November 21, 2022 06:00

Already schools should be starting to conduct a post-mortem of the year while pondering on plans for the new season.

Just like the two seasons that preceded it, schools could not throw caution to the wind as there were no signs that COVID- 19 would relent and loosen its grip. As part and parcel of the cautionary approach, the opening of schools was staggered.

Priority was given to completing students. The 2022 season began with less optimism and hope.

Almost everyone, from the central office, regions and sub regions and schools, still harboured fears that the dreaded and mighty COVID-19 pandemic would continue its disruptive patterns witnessed by previous seasons. Little did it occur to many actors in the education system that the invincible hand of God plus the efficacy of the hastily produced COVID-19 vaccines were sufficient enough to roll back the frontiers of the affliction that tormented the world. But a sudden lull came and when the storm appeared over, schools breathed a sigh of relief. With COVID-19 seemingly at bay, save for a few mega schools that had to continue practising shifting to optimise utilisation of classrooms, many schools experienced a steady return to normalcy.

The limited presence or almost non-existence of the COVID-19 factor occasioned a seamless and uninterrupted interaction between the teacher, student and content. The three elements are pivotal in the teaching process. Teaching can only unleash the potential of students in a climate where the instructional room is at all times characterised by a harmonious and symbiotic relationship between the teacher and student in the presence of the curriculum. Unfortunately, thanks to COVID-19, this harmony had been an elusive target during the past two years. In carrying out the post term of the now fading academic year, schools can now hope and wish with relief that COVID-19 will no longer be a major factor in education.

If COVID-19 had truly taken away the steam from teaching and learning and partly contributing to a downward academic trend, it is not without reason to expect schools post COVID-19 to rally, gather momentum and begin a proper (seamless) take off. Of course, it would be expecting too much too soon to see a dramatic rise in student outcomes but at least a modest upward mobility should be seen across all schools beginning with the 2022 academic season. It is not without foundation that hope and optimism should greet the next academic season. However, beginning a process of school renewal and preparing for a new season would take more than dusting off the rust occasioned by COVID-19. For a fact, COVID-19 was never diagnosed as the root cause of academic underachievement in public schools but it was simply a powerful external distracter, which compounded the situation. As school principals prepare to usher in a new academic season, they should go back to the drawing board and dig deeper to address long standing nagging challenges. The big issue in schools is classroom instruction.

Others are equally important but do not carry the same weight as matters of instruction. With or without COVID-19, it is an established fact that school managers due to overwhelming management responsibilities and external pressures hardly create time to monitor classroom instruction. COVID- 19 further widened the gap between the office of the principal and the classroom practitioners’ instructional halls.

As instructional leaders, it is suicidal for school principals to insulate themselves for whatever reason from the classroom room - the factory manufacturing student outcomes. School principals should know that the principal factor in the classroom is a game changer. The principal factor keeps staff and students on their toes.

The principal factor monitors the pulse of instruction, frequency and validity of assessment and learner feedback. Yes, teachers are adequately qualified and professionally mature to handle instruction on their own but the train could go off the rails when they are left to their own devices.

When feeling disentangled from management, some teachers may not necessarily bring their best selves to the classroom. If there is one change that can do an underachieving school a world of good in the next academic year is increased visibility of school managers. One former school principal who had a reputation for fixing broken schools once told me that principal visibility was a key influencer in his quest for a positive change. This little thing called punctuality did the trick.

To keep the school under his thumb, he cultivated the habit of coming to school early before everyone else came and knocked off late when everyone was gone. His exemplary leadership conduct promoted punctuality and curbed loafing and absenteeism. Turning a new leaf also entails carrying out an honest and critical review of what worked and what did not work in the previous year(s).

Institutional complacency and loyalty to less useful traditions can frustrate change. Usually schools, just like other organisations, fall into the trap of desiring a repeat of more of the same. Schools should never try to enter a new year overburdened with a baggage of the past. Any programme that has proven to be wanting in terms of providing quality service to students should be discontinued. There is need to allocate resources on projects that do not add value to the system. Principals should have the audacity to constructively engage disruptive elements. But if deemed beyond redemption, they should not hesitate to begin a process of weeding out unproductive elements.

Principals are humans and getting rid of a colleague is a very painful and traumatic experience and it is not a sign of weakness when leaders try to ‘accommodate’ and co-exist with disruptive elements. There is always hope for people to be born again. However, the human factor should not assume primacy over the overall health of schools.

In the same vein, teaching should be seen as a human rights issue.

It is a lifesaving enterprise designed to improve livelihoods. It is important for those privileged to run schools to try and be seen to be jealously guarding the rights of children to education. Parting ways with unproductive and disruptive elements is not a bad crime and history will be kind to those who do justice to children. Individual departments that have fallen short of achieving set standards should account for their performance. No one should escape the arm of accountability.