So many people in bureaucratic positions in education see the challenges in South African education as things that can be fixed by having a TWO DAYS workshop with the staff, and then they (the staff) can get on with it. Or fixing it through another policy and/or manual for principals to follow. Unfortunately, most things in life worth changing need HARD WORK, and serious COMMITMENT for a long period of time to change, and to maintain in an acceptable and presentable manner and/or level/position. This is nothing different to what we need to do to turnaround the status of learner performance in South Africa. The real challenge which I want to raise in this conversation, is the importance of KNOWING WHAT to do WHEN, BY WHOM and HOW. Meaning, when you walk into a school, obviously after analysing the performance status of the school in total, WHAT to look for, WHERE, and HOW to go about changing the situation. Below is a display of 6 different options:
So, it not about a 'one-size-fits-all' approach, but rather UNDERSTANDING the nature, level and source of the decline in the school, and the real challenge is to IDENTIFY the correct strategy and remedy for that specific school. In the above, the strategies range from (i) revisioning the management of the school, to (ii) reconstructing the management, to (iii) moving the management of the school to a district level under the leadership of the District Director, to (iv) contracting a suitable turnaround strategist or organisation to manage the school (or even a few schools), to (v) the provincial and/or national department taking over the running of the school(s), to finally (vi) totally transforming the management of the school.
The nature of these options is that they range from 'underperforming' (option 1 and 2), to 'dysfunctional' (option 3 and 4), to 'chaotic' (option 5 and 6). Within this model it is assumed that you have attempted some of the approaches and remedies on the left before (other options), and therefore when you move to the more serious (some will call it more harsh) intervention strategies, that all the roleplayers know that other less harsh strategies have been attempted but did not yield the necessary results. Meaning, that those in the process within the organisation are aware that they WILL move to a more intense strategic approach to change, if the organisation is not responding to the current strategies. The members of the organisation are therefore knowledgable and aware about the CONSEQUENCES of failure or non-responding or lack of improvement in the organisation.
Unfortunately, we have not built up the necessary historical profile of underperforming, dysfunctional and chaotic schools. Safe to say that the information is available, but we don't have the commitment to turn the information into decision making motivations. When we decide on working out a strategic direction for schools, most of the time the conversation is not based on the DATA and INFORMATION that is staring us all in the face. Rather, we try to theorise and philosophy and often even romanticise about the status and nature of the school, and therefore devise strategies which are often not RELEVANT, APPROPRIATE, FIT-FOR-PURPOSE, etc.
The focus of the strategies we agree on is often coloured with 'political' nuances of POLITICALLY CORRECT WORDS, NAMES, etc. For example, it would not look good if a school is called 'dysfunctional' or 'chaotic'. What would the people (teachers) think about it if we call it that? Would the teachers not feel demoralise by the name and even do less? Does that mean that we are admitting we made mistakes, or that we are not good enough, or that we are partly to blame, or that we are not doing our work? etc. All of these and more, are often the driving force for calling the strategy and the nature of the challenge in terms which are comfortable to the 'hear' of others, rather to the real situation that is prevailing in our schools.
Finally, the model that is displayed above is assuming that the education systems higher than schools are in a status of order, stability and well capacitated to deal with the challenges of these schools. In our case, we have to take a hard look at this issue. Most commentators in education believe that our systems higher than schools are equal or in a worse state than schools, and therefore would not warrant them to assist or even change these schools. If true, then we have to contextualise the above strategy in a way that we normalise our education system, and attempt to get the 'higher systems' to take their rightful place within the education system. All of these can be turned around by make a DECISION. To decide not to continue the current employment regime of appointing people in positions when they don't have the ability, capability and capacity to either do, or have the potential to do the work. Well, we are in trouble, but we CAN get out of this mud!!
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