Blog: Helping Secondary Schools in Difficulty

The bane of our system of education lies in the megalomania of those who manage it without accountability. Even if reports of evaluation are galore, there is no action taken to improve the system. We lack the courage and capacity to examine ourselves and recognize our weaknesses.

Well intentioned exercises like the PISA and the PASEC have been done and the reports have been kept for the perusal of those who have piloted the scheme only. A diagnostic test was introduced for children after standard 2 in order to gauge their fitness for the second cycle, and again no follow up has transpired to improve teaching and learning or to start remedial action on a mass scale because results of the test that have leaked out testify to gross deficits even at that age.

Radical change needed
This paper addresses secondary schools that have registered very poor performance for more than five years in succession without any incremental action being taken. This is again reminiscent of the CPE reports of the MES that plough the same results year in and year out at nauseam with no significant change for those who fail.

To help the Minister beat his chest in an exercise of self glorification the decimal percentage of improvement is enough to send him celebrating Christmas and New year. The homes that experience failure do not change.

What should ineffective schools do to change the situation radically?

There is no real management in these schools. Management means planning, developmental planning done with the help of all stakeholders. The school leader in these schools must stop acting as a dictator and start being a manager who inspires his staff. These schools know too much conflict and mistrust.

A manager who is at loggerheads with a rector who thrives on is the split in the staff – this is the characteristic picture of the type of relationship in such schools. Some Rectors are not on speaking terms with their staff and both parties are mudslinging each other wherever they are. Such schools know schools wide crack because the enmity at the top often becomes a base for action.

Management for a staff means believing in the leadership of the Rector and being wedded to his vision. In poor schools leaders do not exist. They are taskmasters who are concerned bureaucratically with teachers. Has he given his casual leave form? Has she signed the attendance register?

The teacher is reduced to a set of facts and figures needed to feed the PSSA. Little is done by the Rector to follow what the teacher does in class. It does not need to be a specialist in a subject to assess the value of an Educator in action. No effort is made to check whether the text being taught has been prescribed or not. Little is done to check whether the teacher enters class in time after the bell goes.

It is extremely rare to find a Rector proferring pedagogical advice to the Educator after having visited his class. Most Rectors complain that there is no time for this. I bet that even if time was granted there would still be no monitoring.

What does monitoring a class imply? Does the teacher have a scheme of work which provides a map week by week of the domains of interactions? Does the teacher have a plan for every lesson, laying emphasis on:

A. How to start the lesson after testing previous knowledge.
B. How to negotiate and expose the lesson divided into appropriate units?
C. How to create scaffoldings leading from one part of the lesson to another?
D. Does the teacher integrate hands-on experience of the learner into the lesson?
E. What are the strategies for overall coverage of the class containing learners of mixed abilities?
F. How does the teacher evaluate the effectiveness of the lesson?

Traditional teaching which is mainly expository has failed and will fail in classes where students come from challenging backgrounds. The understanding of reality differs from one social class to another. A child who has never heard of a lobster will not receive a sentence containing the word. How does the teacher adapt the textbook to the needs of learners? No textbook has been created that will respond to all the requirements of every class. The text needs adaptation.

It is unfortunate that all textbooks are taken to be the immutable standard that sets the pace. It is the learner's ability that should set the pace. Most of the science taught, most of the texts for comprehension treated in class are so heavily dominated by the teacher that you wonder what the place of the learner's participation is.

Sham and pretence
The lack of discipline of both pupil and teacher is the cause of poor performance in many schools. For too long poor credits have been accepted as the best a Mauritian student could perform, passes like four 8 have been deemed to be the best certain learners could obtain. This is out of sheer teacher's complacency and the intellectual indolence of many.

Many students do not produce enough written work throughout their studentship. Teachers do not insist on receiving written assignments from their pupils. This can be checked by analyzing copybooks of your son or daughter and assessing the quantum over a specific period.

In a system where there is no accountability, where the Rector does not know what is happening in classes, what weaknesses teachers suffer from and what should be done to overcome them, it is all sham and pretence that prevail. Each one gives the impression of outperforming the other but the pupils of the class are neglected.

Too little is known about what is happening in our classes by the Rector for him or her to assume management responsibility. Our Rectors are mere caretakers glorified by a lucrative salary. As long as classes are hermetically sealed compartments, a school is not effective.

Unsuccessful schools must cultivate a reading culture among teachers and pupils. If a school is not a garment factory, it must have the culture of a school - interest in the act of learning, passion for knowledge, exposure to the academic world, enquiry about what is happening around us and why - a culture that every child must imbibe.

But then our own teachers are so far from the world of learning because for most of them learning is a business. A teacher must maintain a high level of academic intelligence while making good business. His lucrative interest should not kill his professional ethics.

But who is there at school to ensure that such an atmosphere, such a culture should prevail? This is the role of the Rector and it is unfortunate our professional world is really orphaned and has beenreduced to an academically arid world. Enter a staff room and listen to the level of discussions between members of an academic circle and you mighr wonder whether you are in a school.

The academic curriculum dispensed in our schools at secondary level requires certain assets for successful performance at examinations. How do our schools prepare students to acquire them?

Our students should show proficiency in reading at different levels. The reading skill involves knowledge of vocabulary, the habit of creating images on the impulse of words, the practice of extracting suggested meaning that are hidden.

Reading is not the literal act of pronouncing words. It is a critical analysis of a text of different contexts and terms of difficulty. Another important asset is knowledge of the mathematical language. The learner must be able to transfer meaning from theory to practice and must be able to read reality mathematically.

Our children learn reading mathematically and know mathematics by routine. Little thinking takes place in the act of reading because learning is teacher dominated. Sit in a class and observe the time taken by the teacher's talk as opposed to pupil's participation. Many classes expect monosyllabic responses from pupils. That is why teaching needs to be revolutionized in our schools.

Bureaucratic roles
Teaching means transforming minds. The poor school has little or no impact in the learner's mind, because learning is a business for both teachers and manager. There is too much hate and too little love between teachers and manager. Listen to managers in private conversations. They will malign teachers to such an extent that you wonder in which atmosphere teachers work.

We are far from having leaders in our schools. Autocratic tyrants always suspecting those around do not make credible leaders. In education such a management defeats the purpose of togetherness.

It is unfortunate that the Ministry and the PSSA play minimal bureaucratic roles towards schools. If these schools enjoyed an autonomy, the less regulatory the controlling authority the better. Unfortunately all schools are in a situation of dependence and only await to be dictated in order to operate. In such conditions a bureaucratic institution like a Ministry or an amorphous agent like the PSSA can only be content with minimal good for maximum benefits. After all ineffective schools make poor learning centers and poor business.

It is unfortunate that the PSSA has abdicated from its prime responsibility and reduced itself to a paying agent status. In fact the Ministry bears the responsibility of having reduced an institution that handles thousands of millions of taxpayers" money into a eunuch with insufficient powers.