The plague of under-achievement of schools has been a topical issue, which has preoccupied educators and other critical stakeholders for a prolonged period of time yet there has not been any visible signs of recovery or concrete and appropriate changes giving hope for a better tomorrow. Over the years there has been so much intense debates about issues of access, quality, relevance and accountability. But it was essentially a repeated case of all huffing and puffing, playing to the gallery, unaccompanied by appropriate actions intended to save our children in schools from the certainty of facing some uncertain future. Here is the problem we have mastered and perfected over the years.
This is a culture of flattering to deceive. We talk big in conferences, make extravagant plans and bold promises when we are conscious of the fact that there is no capacity to execute them or we do not say what we mean and mean what we say. A good and lofty plan without execution is as good as dead.
The sector has literally reduced itself to a talking rather than a doing sector. Lack of accountability is the cancer that has been allowed to eat the sector during the prolonged drought of good learning outcomes. A culture of preserving jobs at all costs is so paramount and can be pursued at all costs. There cannot be any serious endeavours to do things differently when there is certainty about job safety and security regardless of the health of organisations we work for. All organisations can thrive and prosper when properly led and governed. When things go wrong, leaders should take responsibility. It is very much unpatriotic for leaders to sit comfortably on their plum jobs when it is clear that they are presiding over the demise and final dissolution of their organisations. This can’t be right as it is bordering on lack of patriotism. Taking responsibility means committing one’s energies to a process of bringing about meaningful and impactful changes. Accountability means accepting one’s limitations and also acknowledging that whatever efforts one made, were not good enough and therefore doing the honourable thing such as shipping out to save the organisation from total collapse is a noble thing. It is very rare to experience a situation where leaders who are not making impact leave of their own accord without being pushed.
Leaders must choose to fall or jump ship when there are visible signs that their organisations are drifting into the abyss. A culture nurtured and sustained over the years where those at the helm of the education sector or any other organisation continue to thrive and prosper while their organisations are falling apart should be stamped out. There cannot be any drive or motivation for improved student learning outcomes when there are no consequences for both under achievement and high performance.
There is an urgent need to restore meritocracy. Those who perform and exceed expectations should be rewarded accordingly. Efforts should be taken to discourage and stamp out a situation where underachievement and mediocrity are celebrated and rewarded. Classroom practitioners and others have raised concerns in the sector about under achievers who continue to miraculously find themselves holding plum and high rewarding positions they may not have honesty earned while high performers are unfairly sidelined.
There should be consequences for unkept promises or for permitting good plans to gather dust soon after being launched amidst pomp and fanfare in big conferences.
When we are pretty certain that our jobs would remain safe and secure even if students were to join the school system and walk out worse off than before, then there would be no urge to do better. Change should not be mentioned in vain. Real and meaningful changes intended to drastically steer the education sector towards a different and positive direction can never be a comfortable experience. It should rock the boat and ruffle feathers. The problem is that sometimes those assigned to champion change can harbour fears about the ramifications of change itself.
It is important for the country to raise selfless and patriotic leaders who can detach themselves from the process of change. These are few leaders who do not mind if change were to come at the expense of their jobs. Saving the education system and the future of our children and children’s children should be the driving motive behind any school transformative process. For decades, educators have been pondering on issues of access, quality, relevance and accountability in the sector but there is no return on investment. No breakthrough at all and the more educators try to dream and think big, the more things remain the same. The system is stuck in the culture of sameness, doing more of the same. The best approach is to get back to the basics. What should be addressed once and for all is the challenge of shortage of critical inputs.
To achieve this, there is a compelling need to watch closely the process of procurement to ensure the system gets value for money and avoid a situation where tenderpreneurship thrives and prosper at the expense of schools. Procurement should also be connected to the academic cycle. If serious about containing the costs of maintenance of schools, we can make a breakthrough.
There is a need to empower and equip a school-based local maintenance units through adequate training and funding. There is a tendency, fuelled in the main by greed, of rushing to engage tenderpreneurs at a huge cost for something that can be managed within schools. Schools should implement fearlessly a culture of holding students accountable for their actions.
Those who wantonly damage school property should be ordered to pay for the costs of maintenance. Cost saving measures should include enlisting with some degree of seriousness the services of trainees from brigades and Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions.
Meaningful change can also arrive quickly if we were to engage teachers on the quality of instruction and motivation in the classroom. Raising the quality of instruction in the classroom and the morale of students and teaching troops is very paramount in the process of change. School leaders should also take responsibility and not conveniently pass the buck to external players when things go wrong. The starting point is self introspection before questions can be raised about the quality of external oversight bodies and community support. One is very confident that the new leadership would rise to the challenge and do what is right to avoid the pitfalls of yesterday. Appropriate deployment is key in the process of reshaping the future we all desire.
