Under-serving students, a norm rather than an exception

Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday September 4, 2023 10:18

Under-serving students have become the norm rather than the exception. It would appear this has become a new normal that unashamedly celebrates and promotes mediocrity and academic underachievement.

The standards have fallen so drastically that it would take nothing short of a miracle to reawaken and relive the once vibrant system that was the pride of the nation. Judging by multiple unrelenting interventions and strategies made within and outside the government to resuscitate education, one would be excused for thinking that our system deserves a diagnosis of no hope. And that it is not far fetched for the system to be seen to be resigning to the fate that it is only a matter of time before drifting finally into the proverbial bottomless pit. That under the present circumstances it would be expecting too much too soon to contemplate and dream of a quick turnaround.

I think the response to that pessimistic and depressing position should be an emphatic and an equivocal no ( a NO in capital letters). There is still a ray of hope to achieve a swift turnaround by developing and nurturing a system that has total and unrelenting focus on students. There are far too many issues that seem to be preoccupying the system to the detriment of the interests of the principal client - the student. For instance, protracted and long winded processes of procurement are not giving the system an opportunity to provide the teaching and learning inputs on time. There is so much emphasis in giving suppliers a fair chance to compete for school tenders. While this is a good thing, it should be achieved at all costs even to the detriment of giving students the support they deserve? It should not be the case.

Education is a fragile service deserving a special dispensation and cannot afford to wait for long intricate and complex procurement procedures. We should, however, keep our lives. Hope begins with not only a mere acknowledgement of systemic imperfections but more importantly, taking audacious steps to redress the identified imperfections and fixing what is clearly broken. To be quite blunt, the system expends a lot of energies on ‘fixing’ the students rather than fixing the elephant in the room - which is building and achieving instructional excellence. The students do respond well to a good teaching culture and there can never be a substitute for the quality teacher.

The system seems to be oozing with confidence and taking solace in the mistaken belief that all is well in the classroom and that the students are the weakest link, failing to reciprocate the efforts made by educators. Many school systems do not consider themselves responsible for students’ low achievement levels and tend to believe that students have themselves to blame for disengaging themselves, not bringing their whole and best selves to school and for engaging in drugs and other social ills which distract their attention from studies. While the claim has an iota of truth because students should also be seen to be doing their bit, it should be remembered that a lschool is bigger than the student and therefore cannot totally abdicate its responsibility for raising the bar to ensure that it caters for all children under its care.

This is not, however, intended to run away from the fact that the behaviour of students should not be a matter of concern for educators. We cannot be indifferent to students’ transgressions. Character building in school is a key component worthy of the time, resources and energies of the educators. However, it should be borne in mind that the student problem is not necessarily the biggest problem. Many schools are characterised by order and discipline because conduct of an overwhelming number of students is beyond reproach. The use of illegal substances or drug peddling by students is a worrisome development but has not as yet reached pandemic proportions. There are more problems within the curriculum delivery or pedagogic realm than those coming from outside. It has been found that if sufficiently motivated and challenged, students tend to focus more on their learning and less on distractions.

Studies have shown that the quality of instruction in the classroom is the biggest game changer. What students do matters, what the central office does matters, what school management does matters, what is happening at home (parental influence) matters too but what matters most is the rigour of instruction. Therefore the system should not unnecessarily spread itself too thin by giving undue attention to matters peripheral to the instructional core business. Of late the role of parents in the affairs of schools is receiving sufficient attention and scrutiny. Schools are faulting parents for seemingly dumping at school children who have failed the test at home. Schools are frustrated by the parental inability or reluctance to rein in their children while unfairly expecting schools to fix what was broken at home. Yes there is an iota of truth in the claim that some parents are abdicating their parental duties and in the process overburden the school system with what are essentially home issues. There is no doubt about this. Some parents are failing to execute their obligations to schools which include fulfilling very basic things of keeping a watchful eyes on their children’s home work, ensuring their children go to school and return home on time.

It is the duty of parents to acquaint themselves with school hours of business to ensure no child arrives at home late under the pretext that there has been this or that activity when in reality there was none. There is a disturbing trend where some children hang around the shopping malls unsupervised after school working hours. If children are left to their own devices and don’t have to account for the time they spent between home and school, a lot of undesirable conduct can develop resulting in catastrophic consequences. Parents must do their bit in terms of having a restraining influence on their children. Having said that, one has to be blunt on the fact that curriculum matters fall squarely on the shoulders of experts - the teachers and their principals. There is no but. Schools cannot afford the luxury of outsourcing the core business of teaching to parents. Consequently, the school system should not take cover from parental imperfections and use that as an excuse to fail children. No school should shirk its responsibility of cultivating a culture of instructional excellence and developing razor sharp school-based instructional experts. Accepting responsibility over what is happening and not happening in a school challenges educators to stay on their toes and inject a new lease of life in the system. What is not working should be thrown into the trash bin and novel approaches should be tried instead. Teachers must ensure that what they do is related to improved learning outcomes.

Anything which does not push students towards proficiency and competence is not worth pursuing. Failing offers an opportunity to refocus on instruction and recommit to the task of building a robust classroom instruction regimen. Achieving this noble goal requires a shuffle of strategies and getting the system of a compliance mode where things are done in order to be seen to be doing something. Value addition is vitally important. The system should avoid the grave mistake of spreading too thin.