Numbers never lie

Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday March 13, 2023 06:00

Clearly numbers never lie. There is trouble in our schools and uprooting the cancer eating our schools is a daunting challenge. We are a nation that has always pinned its hopes on education.

The goal of achieving prosperity for all and delivering a much more diversified and knowledge propelled economy is entirely premised on the power of education.

The goal is predicated on the ability of the education system to successfully equip our children, the custodian of our future, with knowledge and skills that the economy needs. Alas, BEC numbers indicate the goal is in danger and that we still have a long way to go.

The crisis we are facing in education did come upon us a long time back because we did something wrong and they will not go away on their own unless we begin to do something right. In 2014 Professor Jaap Kuiper in his diagnosis of the senior secondary education in Botswana identified the elephant in the room which our system has consciously or unconsciously elected to avoid like plague.

The system can only ignore the Kuiper study at its own peril. Here is Kuiper’s diagnosis of the secondary education system: “Various issues (early retirement, eight-hour workday) and demand for extra payment for assessment.

“These are issues that cannot be avoided forever. Kuiper contends that students are at the receiving end of a system that only shows little inclination to ensure that students have an exciting, innovative and relevant Learning Environment.” There is need to begin to raise the status of the teaching profession by making those who have chosen to belong to it to love their job. Love conquers all.

Historically, teaching was a highly rated and most sought after profession. Teachers commanded the respect not only of the community but that of their students.

Teachers never treated their membership of the profession as some accidental occurrence. The status of the teaching profession has downgraded so much that some teachers are always looking for opportunities to exit rather than consolidate their place in the profession. I have had an encounter as an education superintendent with quite a number of teachers who are always looking for tips on how to leave the classroom. To them the teaching profession is no permanent home but a good launching pad to some other greater and well rewarding professions. It is therefore increasingly becoming difficult to expect good results when teachers are a bit restless and do not feel good about their profession. If there is any profession requiring some mindset change is the teaching profession.

There is need to restore the love for the profession and to help them regain the belief that teachers are divinely appointed to accomplish the noble mission of reversing the frontiers of poverty, eliminating ignorance and saving lives. But the mindset change can have the desired effect and it can only do so much. The system should couple mindset education with something tangible and that is a package of good rewards and incentives. A pat on the back when they have accomplished their task is desirable but it can never be a sufficient reward.

Increased financial investments in the education system should be made for it to attract and retain talent. Reversing the downward academic trend cannot come cheaply.

It should be borne in mind that getting the train back on the rails will be an intricate and financial draining exercise. But as a nation we should be willing to pay whatever price (no matter how heavy) required to fix the education system and to save our children from a possible bleak future. Putting more money into the pockets of the few teachers who make a conscious decision to teach well and sufficiently motivate and challenge their students to fully apply themselves can motivate the rest to raise the classroom instructional bar. The first port of call is revamping the quality of service in the classroom. Strengthening the ability of the teacher to deliver a rich and inspiring teaching and learning environment is the most important reform the system can ever undertake. It needs no rocket science to know that the drought of good results presently bedeviling the system is principally caused by a lack of quality and inspiring instruction.

Teachers can only get better if teacher support system is strong. Oversight institutions should up their game to keep teachers on top. If not adequately resourced and properly nourished, teachers can conveniently avoid difficult and problematic objectives in the syllabus. The system should bring back the much desired in service programme.

The system should consider enlisting the services of retired teachers to beef up the in-service department. Kuiper observed that, “principal education officers are few and seem unable to visit any schools with any form of regularity.”

The teaching profession can draw lessons and inspiration from the military. The military does not plan for a defeat but victory. That is why there is a contingency plan to send a call out notice to reservists to assume active duty in the event of a worst case scenario. In football circles, there is much talk about legends.

Why shouldn’t the teaching talk ponder on the value addition that its legends can bring to the profession? Many legends are ready for a call up. The patriotism in veteran teachers should compel them to come to the party and volunteer their services to a profession they so passionately served and still love. Most of them have retired prematurely and are still energetic.

Premature retirement as Kuiper noted, has resulted “in a severe drain of exactly the most experienced professionals.” And he concludes by saying: “It might be necessary to review this retirement policy/practice. The retention of highly experienced professionals would assist in creating a quality Learning Environment.” The teaching profession especially in secondary schools has a predominantly young teaching staff. This can only confirm the fact that teachers leave the profession early.