Ticking the right boxes

Tshwarelo Hosia | Tuesday October 15, 2024 11:40

The policy development faculty seems to be ticking the right boxes while agencies responsible for execution are a bit wanting in some respects. Schools continue to give their best selves but can do much better with a bit of external aid. One critical area where the policy makers got it right and therefore deserve accolades was the creation and evolution of regional structures intended to ensure monitoring at close range, of the delivery of curricula and utilisation of resources in schools.

On account of their proximity to schools, regional structures are strategically placed to quickly scan and diagnose ‘broken areas’ and order and facilitate remedial actions. For instance, regions are expected to acquit themselves fairly well in terms of identifying the training needs of schools as well as developing, in collaboration with the central office, targeted professional training programmes to close performance and achievement gaps identified.

However, the dream of having continuing capacity building interventions remain an elusive target yet to be fulfilled. The challenge is that regional structures, intended to redeem the system, is a fairly new and evolving phenomenon and therefore can be excused for what seems to be its limited capacity to navigate its oversight responsibilities of the operations of schools. This means schools could be mainly ‘going it alone’ at the moment, awaiting for the day in which external oversight institutions would be ready for the challenge.

As a matter of urgency, there is a need to revise and re-examine critically the place of the regional structures in the education landscape with the sole aim of enhancing capacity and effectiveness. If not strengthened and re-purposed, it would take time for the regions to make impactful engagements in schools. Sadly, the implication is that the present challenge of academic underachievement would remain a topical issue for quite some time. But this is the one problem that needs an urgent response. Anywhere in the world, schools seem to relish and desire regular and sustained visits from oversight bodies. The visits help them to replenish energies and to recover their sense of worth and purpose. A sense of despondency usually creeps in when schools feel not visited with some degree of regularity by external oversight bodies. Schools consider themselves a little ‘marooned’, literally left on their own devices to navigate the daunting challenges associated with delivery of the curricular.

This view is corroborated by research. Professor Jaap Kuiper once observed that regional structures maintain a minimal presence in schools.

Further noting that, “it appears that officers from the (sub) regions hardly ever visit schools. They mainly arrive after the examination results are out. Questions are asked about low performance. However, visits should have happened long before.” It is clearly evident that regions are acting like an observer mission rather than an active participant in the upgrading of schools from a low performing status into higher achievers. Regions should change the timing of their visits and rearrange the time table so that they can go into the trenches with schools to develop a rich learning experience. Regions can redeem themselves and do much better to meet the expectations of schools. First regions should learn to create some semblance of balance between non-academic office work and the core business of aiding schools to achieve quality results.

The challenge, it seems, regions are overwhelmed by the amount of work in the office, which mainly revolves around relaying information to the central office. A lot of critical decisions are made at the central office and now and then data is required to aid the decision-making process. Primarily, regions are preoccupied with the collection and retrieval of data to feed decision makers in the central office.

This job, if not properly managed, can be overwhelming. The demand for data, while desirable, has the potential to derail schools and regions from focusing on the business of teaching and improving governance. Regions can also redeem themselves by keeping an updated database so as to avoid running helter-skelter when data is required. Another challenge is that regions were created with wider responsibilities of representing the central office in district and regional governance structures. The ambassadorial responsibilities if not carefully navigated can take the steam away from the core business of monitoring instruction in schools. Regional officers handle a lot of stuff outside their core business, and it is important to tread carefully and avoid a situation where external duties take precedence over the purpose for which the regions were created. There is also a need to retool regional officers on their key responsibilities. While to their credit, some officers do manage to visit schools, but it is important to build capacity in order to raise the quality of regional-school engagements.

Visiting schools can hardly produce desired results if it is a mere question of compliance and ticking boxes. School visits should leave schools more empowered on how to bring about an inclusive classroom delivery catering for students with varying abilities and challenges; how to raise students’ level of participation in their studies and how to improve on grading of students work among other things. Regions can do better with the deployment of additional subject specialists to assist in the building of instructional experts in schools.

Teachers tend to get more inspiration from supervisors who seem to understand their fields and can offer assistance on matters of pedagogy. Lastly schools do much better if given a bit of space and autonomy.

They excel when they feel their supervisors trust them to do the right thing. And also, teachers bring their very best when they feel regional officers care enough about their welfare. The visits that regional offices make can make a profound impact in boosting confidence. This piece is not in any way intended to underrate the good work regions are performing. It is intended to make the work better to secure the future of our children.