The long awaited Super Tuesday

Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday January 16, 2023 06:00

But finally the long awaited Super Tuesday arrived and our public schools resumed their academic business following a long, laborious and exciting but well deserved break.

Though Christmas festivities are notoriously known for their energy sapping power, the break from the classroom activities ironically offers teachers and students a golden opportunity to replenish their batteries and get more classroom ready. It is a promising new year, unlike the past three-COVID-19 infested years.

It’s a year fully pregnant with hope and everyone is expecting a life turnaround. The highlight of the Super Tuesday is that schools opened their doors to five-year-old freshers who are setting their little toes on the school grounds for the first time.

As parents reluctantly released their precious little and fragile five-year-old children to begin their lifelong academic course, not a single one of them entertains the thought and possibility of a mission failure.

Yes of course, parents habour some fears but overall they believe their children are in the right and capable hands. All parents believe they are sending to school the best children they ever got and they expect the school system to offer nothing but the best. In spite of the reported daunting challenges that continue to dog the school system, many parents, especially from low income and poverty stricken backgrounds, have not allowed the not so impressive past academic record of their schools to dampen their spirits.

Their faith in the school system and its game changing prowess is strong and unwavering. Behind the scenes, parents within the limits of resources at their disposal, quietly and proudly do their bit to get their children ready for school.

Though one has a feeling that they tend to leave it a little too late but ‘the back to school movement’ usually gathers momentum in the week or so prior to the Super Tuesday. The year 2023 is no exception.

The school uniform and other school related accessories dispensing shops were inundated and overwhelmed with patrons seeking to make last minute purchases to get their children ready for school. One noted with a sense of relief that in spite of the heavy and often reckless Christmas buying spree, parents, guardians and care givers who obviously attach a lot of premium on the school system, were able to spare something for their school going children. No matter how long the queues were, all parents had to endure the scorching sun in some places as they awaited patiently their turn to secure the necessary supplies. That alone is sufficient enough to show the extent to which parents are committed to the education of their children.

The beginning of a school academic season is a dreadful experience as it brings along additional responsibilities to every parent. The responsibilities, which all parents must carry out with distinction, start with the simple tasks of ensuring that their children wake up at the right time, leave their homes with no empty stomachs, wearing clean and well pressed uniform to the complex task of participating in the actual academic activities assigned by their teachers. The latter is one critical area where many parents appear wanting.

While parents are expecting schools to perform and deliver, schools are decrying limited or lack of parental engagement in the learning of their children. It seems parents need a bit of guidance on what they are expected to do. Private schools have introduced communication books clearly spelling out what the home work of the day is all about and the role(s) expected of parents.

The same cannot be said about public schools. The private school’s communication tool seems to be serving them well in terms of securing parental engagement.

It might not do any harm for public schools to borrow a leaf from private schools in this regard. But generally parents, rightly so, pin all their hopes on professionals and experts in schools and they are not demanding anything out of this world to expect a flawless quality teaching and learning service. The teacher no mistake concept influences their faith in the teachers taking care of their children.

Success is synonymous with schools and clearly schools should never betray parental trust and expectations. Schools were established to navigate whatever terrain they would come across, weather every storm to ensure smooth sailing for every learner. So every parent looks forward to a new dawn when he or she will experience the joy of seeing off their children to school.

As they go about their daily life trials and tribulations, parents look forward with a bit of anxiety to every post school session. Will my child come back safe and sound or worse off? The one non-negotiable thing is that every parent expects and demands a safe, clean, warm, friendly and quality teaching and learning environment.

And down this road they do not expect any compromise. After school every parent wants to welcome back a smiling, happier, safer, unhurt and more importantly, better child.

Parents have high expectations of their children and schools and schools reciprocate by way of raising the bar. Schools must validate and encourage their students. It is suicidal for a school to underestimate the abilities of its learners. All schools can do better than yesterday. The new academic season is the best time to shed unproductive habits and tighten the loose ends.

A turnaround begins with the right tone. And the right tone is the belief that the school has capable and gifted students who know how to, as Rachael E. Curtis and Elizabeth A. City put it, “think critically, analyse information and apply their knowledge in different settings and prepared to be citizens in a diverse democracy.” Schools can do better when they can begin to see students as assets and not liabilities, as a resource to be refined and not as problems requiring strict disciplinary measures. Schools must ponder on day one where they are getting things wrong and on basic things requiring immediate attention. It serves no useful purpose to try and boil the whole ocean when one cannot get the right simple basic things. Basic questions seeking attention are whether all teachers are positive about the quality and potential of the students under their care. It is important for everyone on deck to be speaking a common language of success to students.

Students tend to bring their best selves to the classroom if they genuinely believe that their teachers have high expectations of them. When they attach a high premium on their learners, teachers naturally raise quality and the rigour of instruction. But when they underestimate their students, teachers tend to restrict their questioning to the lowest level focusing on recall. And they do so, sadly, at the expense of high order questions demanding creativity, application and analytical skills.

Lastly, it is important to note that teachers, get a little rusty, however experienced they may be. Training and professional development should be an on-going and interminable process.

The pre-service initial training can never be sufficient in building agile and versatile teachers, capable of delivering a 21st century curriculum. Otherwise one still believes that schools will wake up from their slumber and realise the enormous powers they have to change the trajectory of student outcomes and consolidate their role in the delicate task of nation building. If schools can answer the question where did they go wrong, then the glory days will be within reach in the not so distant future. Without any shadow of doubt, the school continues to be the nation’s last hope.