Accomplishment of organisational goals takes hard work, good planning and execution. The education system is facing a very big elephant in the room, a stubborn culture of underachievement. A continuing culture of academic under achievement calls into question among other things the quality of classroom instruction and appropriateness of human resources deployment. The critical questions that should always be asked and answered are how well are teachers teaching ? How well is the school climate (meaning how well are principals carrying out their managerial functions?) And lastly how well are students responding to the efforts of their teachers and actually taking the initiative to manage their own learning?
But before these questions are interrogated, certain basic things should also be met and put in place. Effectively tackling the big issue of raising academic achievement levels begins with managing the small, sometimes seemingly insignificant stuff. Well, there is a challenge of a failing economy, which has seriously compromised the ability to provide very basic tools enabling schools to function effectively. But in the face of precarious economic circumstances, the education system can still thrive and prosper if the right choices are made. It is crucially important for the education system to choose its battles wisely. The simple reason is that some battles are not worth fighting at this juncture and can wait and be prosecuted at a later stage when the economy is doing better. Knowing which battles to fight now and which ones can wait is a function of a good strategy.
