The teachers’ wish

As much as it is a desire of almost every lawyer to rise to the bench, it is equally a wish of every classroom practitioner to reach the pinnacle of their profession by way of assuming the prestigious position of school principal. However, one is not certain whether it takes any special/additional training in the case of lawyers to assume judgeship responsibilities but in the teaching profession, one is pretty certain that teachers in our jurisdiction do not undergo any professional development preparing them for a transition from the classroom into management board centre. In the absence of a calculated and deliberate plan to raise and grow a pipeline of school leaders, everything, one can guess that, it is left to chance and in the hands of our good Lord. However, it must be noted that a handful of ambitious teachers do make efforts on their own volition, sometimes at their own costs, to enroll for education management courses. But the acquisition of such leadership training is not necessarily a prerequisite for those seeking consideration for the position of principal but it is treated as an additional advantage. By and large, a good number of teachers who may not have any sufficient motivation to enroll for management courses continue to ply their trade in the classroom awaiting to rise steadily through the ranks to the apex of the school governance system. And this explains why it is seldom to see young and talented professionals rising quickly to the top as it is the case in other professions. The system takes a lot of time to hatch leaders.

Appointments for positions of authority are based on the length of service, teaching experience one would have garnered over the years plus (sometimes) one’s pedigree as a classroom practitioner. This means achieving a distinction as a classroom practitioner does not necessarily guarantee one a place in the management board. As things stand, without any sufficient grounding on leadership, one can understand the anxiety, panic and fear associated with the transition from the classroom into the management board room. The excitement associated with receiving an appointment letter to a position of authority is sometimes accompanied and diluted by the fear and anxiety of not being able to measure up to one’s new and daunting responsibilities. The one question vexing the new appointee is whether one has the requisite skills to manage the school as expected. It is crystal clear that without prior training, making the switch from the staff room to the management board room is a big jump and one task requiring proper navigation skills. Newly appointed school principals must be alive to the fact change is a painful process requiring sacrifices. Moving from their staff room to the management room necessarily calls for adjustments, which may not necessarily sit well with long time staff room friends. Some of the decisions may rub old friends the wrong way and setting one on a collision course with long and trusted allies. Friends being friends would always have a legitimate expectation to receive support from their allies in management positions. But that is not how things work in management. Leaders are duty bound to serve and display fairness, integrity, honesty and impartiality.

So the risk of losing friends looms large when one ascends to the position of influence. And school leaders should not feel bad about the prospect of ‘being perceived to have dumped’ old friends as long it is in the interests of securing the bigger picture of ensuring good and better learning opportunities for all children and every child. The worst and painful disservice a newly appointed principal or any school leader can do is to be caught in no man’s land, that is being somewhere between the staff room and the management board room or alternatively some leaders can only manage to move physically into the management room while leaving behind their souls in the ordinary staffroom. Such managers are characterised by fear to ruffle feathers, fear to lose popularity and indeciveness.

The tough call expected of school leaders is to place the interests of the school and students ahead of other considerations. The post of school principal requires not only faith in one’s abilities but also nerves of steel. It takes courage on the part of school leadership to address road blocks holding back the goal of attaining improved student learning outcomes. Yet one of the things that leaders across the board, including those at the helm of schools, find it difficult to do is to muster the courage to make tough calls and hard choices when the situation so dictates. One of the tough calls required of school leaders is the courage and tenacity to disrupt the existing unproductive pattern of behavior.

The new principal should take note that breaking down all existing barriers paves the way for ushering of a new positive school climate, which can unleash and release the geniis of all students. And newly appointed school leaders are best advised not to harbour any fears when championing the cause of students. It is an act of cowardice and dereliction of duty for a school leader to see a problem and shy away from naming it. Courage begins with identifying and naming a problem and once named all eyes can be fixated on addressing the problem. Newly appointed

principals should be conscious of the fact that schools face two major problems being adaptive and technical problems. Adaptive issues relate to issues of attitudes stemming from the ‘cultural wiring’ of the school while technical issues refer to instructional matters in the classroom among others. That is how well equipped are the teachers to deliver students’ engaging, inspiring and thought provoking lessons?

Newly appointed principals should deal swiftly with adaptive or behavioural issues of time keeping, punctuality, dress code, cleanliness, respect for law and order. This should include removing the road block of negativity where students and teachers do not believe in their abilities to alter the performance trajectory. At all times the principal should lead his charges in cultivating the ‘I can do it’ kind of attitude in students. Students can do more if they believe they have the right principal and right teachers. Doubts stifle learning. Schools can only thrive in an orderly and disciplined environment. Effective learning cannot take root in an environment where school rules and policies are violated with impunity. All disruptive elements should be dealt with in accordance with the rules of the game and there should not be any sacred cows coming and going out of the schools as and when they please without consequences. While it may be relatively easy to identify visible unproductive behaviors, it may not be so easy to identify and name an instructional challenge in the classroom. In most cases novice managers are directed to look elsewhere, beyond the walls of the classroom. This is where a novice principal can miss the plot. And sometimes this situation is compounded by the fact that principals may not summon sufficient courage to hold their teachers accountable for their work in the classroom. Holding people accountable often causes friction. And sometimes managers can settle for safety and peace to the detriment of good teaching and learning. Therefore on the technical front, new principals should interrogate available data. Data on test scores partly reflects the quality and rigour of classroom instruction. Data can raise curiosity when the same class does well in chemistry and cannot obtain good grades in mathematics. Data speaks volumes about performance gaps, which require closing.