Making schools count

School governance is the bedrock of any school turnaround agenda and so is appropriate deployment of staff to ensure that the right people have taken their right seats on the bus. There is no known school turnaround programme that ever flourished without a strong leader. To corroborate this claim, the Ontario school leadership framework points to a clear and intimate link between school leadership and student outcomes and the general wellbeing of learners.

In his report on attainment of low education outcomes, Prof Jaap Kuiper noted with concern that a drought of leadership presently bedevils most of our schools. “Schools are not managed well”, he said bluntly. Further adding that when asked, school management was unable to indicate what their vision was as to the pedagogy used to ensure learning that is relevant, applicable and skills-related. Lack of flexibility and autonomy play a role in rendering school managers less effective. The system has nurtured and sustained a culture of over dependence on the central ministry and to some extent regional offices. Of course, some modicum of decentralisation exists but our system remains highly centralised. Kuiper continues to say that: “Schools do not have any kind of long-term School Development Plans. They await instructions from the national office, and interpret the curriculum in a very narrow manner, thus impoverishing secondary education seriously.

To compound the situation, the system is yet to develop a package of incentives to attract and retain talented teachers and school managers. Research has shown that the teaching profession in the country continues to lose rather prematurely experienced and talented teachers due to retention challenges. In Botswana, Kuiper observed “that it is possible to retire at 50, although the official age is 60. It seems that many leave the education profession soon after they reach the age of 50 years. This results in a severe drain of exactly the most experienced professionals. It might be necessary to review this retirement policy/practice. The retention of highly experienced professionals would assist in creating a quality learning environment”.

Generally schools are running with a predominantly young staff. However, one must hasten to note that this is not the reason or excuse for under-achievement. Young people are equally good and if properly trained and supported can deliver desirable learning outcomes.

The challenge with our system is that school principals hardly receive any training before assumption of leadership positions. Without training on managerial skills it is safe to conclude that schools leaders find themselves in the deep end. But we cannot try escape from the reality that a good blend of young/inexperience and experience in our schools is what the doctor has prescribed for our system.

It is against this background and in the context of the Kuiper study that the then Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Basic Education, Dr Collie Monkge embarked on a programme of achieving a good mix of youthful exuberance with experience in our schools especially at management level. He advocated a return of a few seasoned and gifted school managers who had exited the system too early. These managers were to be deployed strategically on short-term contracts to “jump-start” chronically low achieving schools. The scheme saw the return of Tshokologo Dineo and Edwin Keatimilwe to manage and restore a culture of academic excellence at Matsha College and Mahupu Unified Secondary School respectively.

While efforts to train the existing school managers were continuing, plans were afoot to enlist the services of a few more of retired and experienced school managers, with a proven track record of achieving good learning outcomes, to rescue low achieving and struggling schools. It is noteworthy that the efforts of the two veteran principals were not in vain and the evidence is there for everyone to see. The two schools under their care have since skyrocketed to the group of 10 most performing schools. Kuiper concludes that “we need to start managing our schools much more efficiently and effectively.

And I concur that this is part of getting the basics right. The sooner the better because education cannot wait”.