‘Teachers Need 21st Century Skills to Stay Relevant’
In this interview with Funmi Ogundare, the Administrator of May Day School, Isolo, Lagos, Mrs. Jessica Fadoju stressed the need for teachers to be equipped with 21st century skills and be good team players to get the best out of their students and for the
Many schools grapple with the issue of teacher preparation and development, performance management and empowerment, what is the case in your school?
In terms of preparation, we have created a healthy competition in the system and as we do that we also create a healthy atmosphere. Our teachers are working, we have our teachers and other members of staff being appraised, but before we get to that level, they are also been appreciated for every little effort on a weekly basis; and we give awards and their pictures are placed everywhere. That is what we do at the end of every session to know the very best of people and really appreciate them. It is really pushing them and making them to sit up, so we are making them work better. In terms of training, we have had some training and we are having more. We have facilitators coming in to train them. We also give room for train-the-trainers’ workshop, where we do a PowerPoint presentation in-house. Gradually we are moving to training overseas, though it is a gradual process. We have started already; we have a whole lot that we are doing.
Do you have any policy in place to evaluate your staff?
We have a form or booklet for the appraisal system at the end of the session, they are appraised by the school administrator or head teacher. They also do self-assessment and even from people who are close to them, so it is not like a one person thing. That means for you to get to that position, you have to do your very best.
What have been your challenges since you became the administrator of the school?
Nigerians are not receptive to change, they fight change. Change could either be positive or negative. I believe in positivity and I am very optimistic. I believe in going for things that I strongly believe in and making sure I achieve it. So for you to work with me, you must key into the dream and transform things. When you come into a school setting, you must look at how it is, you look at the levels and what we could do to spice it up. Your touch must be noticed; people must come in and see that there is something different happening and it shouldn’t be on the negative side. Nigerians don’t have that welcoming spirit to change, they may complain that you have been there for a while, they may not say it to your face, but in their attitude they display it. There are some people that feel you are old, however before now, I have worked with people who are older and younger than me as leaders, but because of what I was aiming at, I never looked at that. I believe people should key into that. When you want to achieve something, don’t look at the age of anybody. When you see someone who owns a school and wants you to come and help, what do you do in that instance? For me here, I have enjoyed working and I have been given a free hand to get to talk to the directors, and they listen. That is another thing which is a skill that we are trying to teach the children. If you don’t listen, how will you respond? As a leader, you must be a good follower and show leadership by example. You should do something more so that they would understand the real reason why you said they should do it.
How have you been able to overcome the challenges?
We are still overcoming and there is still a lot that we need to do. When you are persistent and perseverant, it is very important. You don’t give up easily; you must be a risk taker to be a leader. You must take the bull by the horn. You must have a positive spirit and take up the challenge. Despite the challenge, you should believe that you can do it. You must have faith in God, you must have a positive spirit and it will happen. That is what has been pushing me and keeping me going and the fact that I have director’s listening ears. Whenever one of my directors is around, he comes straight to my office to discuss the welfare of the children and the school. For me the availability of resources too is key, if you want to do something and you must have what it takes to do it, to bring about the very best especially in the school setting, you have to be ready to spend. We have helped the teachers too to work and learn to improvise.
How would you describe education when you were a principal of some schools and now as an administrator?
I have worked as principal of some schools before coming to May Day, and I would say there has been a big change. Then, we were using chalk board, but now we have white boards. We are beginning to have our activities and ensuring that our teachers are there to decorate the classrooms. On a weekly basis, the children’s work are mounted on the board and teachers show their creativity and ensure that they decorate the classroom before the children resume for school to make the whole place beautiful, it is not only flowers that can make it look beautiful. In terms of technology, we are now using more of it. Before now, I used to go to business centre, but now, I have my laptop. The teachers are also working with their laptops in the classroom where they show educational videos and print out creative pictures to enhance teaching and learning. The children also do role playing; they act and do group work. Then, there was nothing like that. Teachers ensure that the children work in groups. But again, we need to know how to cope with different people out there, so if you are working as group members, you must know how to manage people, and work with even those you don’t like. We are starting early to teach them, we were not taught that way during our time.
What efforts did you make to ensure that your teachers key into best practices to enhance teaching and learning?
Everybody is keying into 21st century education, technology is very key for such education. You have to be IT compliant or else the children will embarrass you. They go online and do researches and the teachers have to do the same too, we do presentations and invite the children to come out and do same, and we do invite their parents to see them and they are delighted. We don’t live any level out of it. I feel you are not just coming to school to eat and sleep or while away time, they are also learning. We don’t write lesson note but we do lesson plan and the teachers have to use their laptop computers to make the plans and insert pictures and questioning. I like children to use their initiative and reasoning skill when they are doing questioning. We also have our diction coming into play and you see our children speaking and goi ng home to display it. We have a whole lot to do and we are ready. I am sure our directors are ready because they want the dream of the founder of the school to die.
What efforts are you making to ensure that the founder’s dream for the school is kept alive?
One of the things I want to do is to make the children feel happy coming to school. Now I get to hear children who are not feeling well crying to come to school, I love hearing that. That means they love school, you see some children feign illness because they don’t want to come to school and you have some parents coming in with the children and you ask them whether they are happy. Once a child is happy coming to school, I tell you, the parents will be very happy, it shows that she is learning a lot. Then there is discipline among staff too, the founder was a disciplinarian but not very harsh and she does not condone rubbish. When I heard about her with my kind of person, I don’t joke with my coming to work and punctuality. The children should come to meet you in school not them waiting for you. We also ensure that we instill discipline and ensure that the environment and the ambiance are beautiful. The children basically should enjoy their learning.
How is your school coping with the recession?
I had a chat with a parent and I told her that parents should be appreciative because in terms of population, we didn’t increase. As a parent myself, I give clues to the management even in my children’s school because I am into the school system, they let us know what they are doing to improve on things. Here, we have not witnessed a situation where parents have had to withdraw their children from the school except the one that has to move to the US. We have not had parents complaining, but we have had to spend more. For instance, we did not get much this term because we did not increase in population.
This term especially, it has been difficult because what we used to buy before now compared to what we have now are poles apart. We had to improvise on a daily basis we make photocopies of things for children, you want to copy things online, we have to minimise printed copies and ensure that two children manage a printed paper that would have gone for one child before. You want to design your classroom to make it look beautiful; you have to make use of some rough sheet and things that you would have discarded. You can use a paper plate for so many teachable things. So as we are managing, we are being more creative, that is what recession has taught us.
Where do you see the school in the next five years?
We are going places and we will get to that international level, now we are just going into international curriculum fully and mixing it with the Nigerian curriculum and when it comes to ATS, SAT exams and IGSCE, children will do it. I intend to make the school get to that level. Sometimes you might start late and when you start, you might even be better than those that started early.
What is the way forward for education in 2017?
We should be open to ideas and be great researchers, using 21st century skills is key and for you to be open to ideas, you have to be creative and proactive, as well as a great team player. You have to be a 21st century skilled teacher for you to be a great team player and for the children too, they want to see the teachers doing that because it is very important.