Closing underachieving schools

Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday September 8, 2025 15:44

The closure of a school may appear drastic and harsh. But when seen in the context of securing fundamental and inalienable rights of children to education, it is a fair and just intervention.

Schools are established to make a positive impact on the lives of children under their care. The right of children not only to quality and relevant education but also to a safe, clean and healthy school environment should be jealously protected at all times. In our jurisdiction, no public school, insofar as my memory can serve me, has been closed by an act of government on account of failure to meet educational standards and serve students.

Instead, parents themselves have, in a subtle way, found a way of channelling their children from perceived or real low-achieving schools to schools that offer opportunities for children to thrive and prosper academically. This has led to a situation where some schools enrol students beyond their capacities, while other schools are enrolling below capacity.

Diverting children from a school offering no prospects for academic prosperity to a promising school can have far-reaching cost implications while also exposing children to new cultural experiences, which can be positive and negative. The cost factor has become a deterrent for many struggling families.

This means rescuing children from a failing school culture is not an option available to all parents. Children from poverty-stricken backgrounds and low-income families often find themselves stuck with schools that cannot offer them a good education and a ticket to improved livelihoods. While children from affluent families are doing better in terms of having options for migration from underachieving schools to high-performing schools.

In jurisdictions where it exists, the policy of closure of non-achieving schools demonstrates the high premium that governments attach to matters of education. It sends a clear message to schools of zero tolerance for a persistent culture of underachievement. It is a clear no to a culture of mediocrity. The threat of a school closure and its execution, when justified, keeps schools on their toes. It prevents a culture of impunity where schools exist in name and cannot be held accountable for their actions. A school is more than a building. It exists to serve students and to serve them with distinction. Anything less is a disservice and therefore unacceptable. Parents who don’t have the means to scout for better education opportunities for their children need help. Help not from God but from authorities charged with the responsibility of ensuring that schools deliver good student learning outcomes as expected.

The policy of closure of schools that don’t help students to fulfil their purpose in life and pursue their dreams should be adopted as a matter of urgency. It is a life belt extended to students drowning in a perpetual culture of academic underachievement. There could be a reason or two why the policy of closure of perpetually low-achieving schools is not yet in place. Lack of alternative schools within a reasonable distance is a primary factor. There is also an issue of permitting a low-achieving school to keep trying over and over again and hoping for the best.

Unfortunately, some schools hope it is all that the students and communities have. Such schools have been trying for the past decade, but no signs of progress are visible. Any school without a known improvement plan cannot improve. There are no miracles in the education field. Improved learning outcomes come from a strategy and its execution.

This means that children stuck in those schools are condemned to a life of doom. It is very important to apply not only pressure to bear on non-performing schools to do better, but also to inject more resources to assist them to shed a bad culture of underperformance. Quick changes usually come in the form of a change of guard. Gifted and passionate leaders usually have a rare distinction of making the impossible possible.

Leaders should be carefully deployed to facilitate maximum educational gains for students. There is an urgent need to strengthen not only internal school governance but oversight as well. The school inspectorate divisions should be strengthened and capacitated to ensure compliance with educational standards.

Schools badly need a robust and agile inspection body.

The mandate of inspection must necessarily include the power to close chronically low-achieving schools. A culture of allowing a failing school to continue failing generations of students should be discontinued as a matter of urgency. No school should exist for ornamental purposes. A school has some serious business to undertake. Those falling short should cease to exist. Otherwise, instead of achieving the goal of equalising society, non-achieving schools perpetuate social inequalities with impunity. This is a tragedy.