Of course there is no denying the fact that there is more than one way of transforming struggling and underachieving schools. Improving school funding, building more infrastructure, trimming the overloaded curriculum, reducing student-teacher ratio,...
In the last couple of years, the school was synonymous with underachievement, having consistently experienced a string of poor academic achievements.However, in a pleasant surprise, the school achieved a giant leap from position 29 to 20. While this...
This is because these institutions do everything in their powers to jealously guard their standards and cultural heritage.Sadly the same cannot be said of our public secondary schools. Let's take for example, Moeng College built in 1949 under the...
The recently published Junior Certificate Examination results show that there is a perfect exchange of baton between kindergarten, primary and secondary schools.Selebi-Phikwe secondary schools are clearly building on the rock solid base laid at the...
Not all issues confronting schools should be a priority. Schools should make deliberate efforts to place their bets on the one thing that can yield a profound impact. Schools should know where to place their smart bets. In any school there is always...
Yet the business of teaching should go forward because education by its very nature cannot stop. And to their credit, teachers do cover for new recruits not yet in post. The new academic season traditionally kicks off with the joy and pride of...
Almost all parents look forward to that day when the school would step in to contribute its fair share in the raising of their little precious ones. All parents desire the best schools on offer and given a choice no parent would pick a school that...
Some have fulfilled their dreams while others have been frustrated. Both parents and government are seeking answers especially from underachieving schools. All learners, thanks to automatic progression, are assured of a free passage to the next...
Schools have a history of battling with known traditional problems being the need for inspirational and effective leadership, strong, passionate and competent teachers, adequate provision of teaching and learning materials, additional classrooms,...
This means education is an essential service that should go uninterrupted.Even in circumstances of war, sanity must be allowed to prevail. Efforts should be made by all parties to the conflict to insulate learning institutions from the war theatre in...
The goal is to push a large proportion of learners into proficiency. But, alas, history is littered with a good number of school principals who have miraculously managed to switch from one school to the other but have very little with little to show....
However, a school is a unique organisation that can make or break the future of children under its care. Job security in schools, while desirable, cannot be realised and protected at all costs. Learners are fragile and therefore must never be...
To achieve good learning outcomes, secure job security of teachers and enhance the image of the teaching profession, government invested heavily on teacher professional development. In particular, a deliberate effort was made to phase out Primary...
Other things are secondary. Rachel E. Curtis and Elizabeth A. City say a school system should all times “remember children.” And this reminds me of an experience I had with one of the foreign education consultants then engaged in the production...
The system can pride itself in having invested a lot of money into the professional development of school managers but alas with no return on investment. The long and the short of it is that having a trained manger is important but that does not...
The ‘learner first’ approach entails a consistent search for opportunities to improve instruction. This is vitally important because the quality of instruction is second to none in the quest for improved learning outcomes. Rachel Curtis and...
In the words of Linda Cliatt Wayman, a prominent school Turnaround Champion, “if you are going to lead, lead.” Wayman made an interesting observation that not all buildings purporting to be schools are schools. Some are serving the purpose for...
Established in 1980 as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference, the role of the organisation has evolved to be in sync with modern day political and economic dictates. Most guns are now silent within the region, necessitating a...
While a school improvement plan is a slow incremental agenda requiring years to effect change, a turnaround programme is a quick fix. “It is a dramatic and comprehensive intervention in a low achieving school that produces significant gains in...
The revised version must necessarily include decentralisation (to cut the red tape) and empowerment of school leaders to give them a leading role in the procurement of teaching and learning needs. After all, school principals are better placed to...
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