Timeframe to Turnaround your school

This might be the most popular question when I engage with colleagues, focusing on the turning around of schools.  More often, education officials want you to do a 'microwave' event, like a two days workshop, and then hope that 'you have now informed them what to do' and 'now they can go back to their schools and do it'!  Well, I need to disappoint them that I am not a magician, but rather a turnaround strategist.  I have no doubt that all schools, meaning those who want to, can be turned around within three to five years. The example below will be based on a 3 year turnaround focus.

The domains of challenges which will confront you as the change agent, are the following in order of sequence:

• ownership (3 months);
• planning (6 months);
• curriculum management (15 months);
• educator orientation (6 months); and
• sustainability strategy (6 months).

The first domain will be the 'ownership' domain, meaning the extend to which people, and in particular the change agent or the leader takes full responsibility for what the current status of the school is.  The more you engage in 'how others are undermining and how they are not doing their work', the more you disempower yourself to solve your problems.  One way of undermining yourself is to focus and continue to talk about what other are not doing, over whom you have no control and/or influence.  You have to do what you have to do - and the more you focus on your ability (or inability) at this point, the more your reflective engagements will show you how different you can do things to get better results.  With this approach, we are not asking you to accept other people's mistakes and problems as your own, but rather to look at what they are doing, and how they can doing things differently, and what influence you have over their change in behaviour.  And we will be surprise as to how often we give away our power by not realising that we have or had power in the first place.

The second domain is all about planning.  We have heard the saying which says that 'if you fail to plan, you plan to fail'.  This is absolutely true!  Woody Allen states that 80% of success is all about pitching up, being on time, and being prepared for what you will be facing.  It is not about being brilliant, being a genius.  Very often I find myself in conversations where others feel I know a lot about the a topic ... NO, I just prepared myself on the topic, that is all!  And in schools, planning and being prepared are all about the eight School Readiness Components, namely (i) attendance (first teachers and then learners); (ii) teacher information; (iii) learner information; (iv) annual planning; (v) timetabling; (vi) teaching and learning schedules; (vii) organogram; and (viii) teaching and learning support materials. And we will discuss the level of readiness in another blog.

While the first two domains are supportive, the third domain is the core of what education is all about ... the delivering and managing of the curriculum through a proper framework.  Most schools 'manage' the curriculum through HOPE, which is another name for 'I don't knowing what is going on' in my school.  This 'hope mentality' is based on the notion that 'teachers are professionals' and that they would do their work.  Well, it is not taking place, and by wishing that it will take place in future without putting mechanisms in place, is irresponsible from any manager.  Because management is all about evaluation (checking what is going on) and monitoring (checking what is happening is what is suppose to happen), accountability is crucial within this process.  And it is a systemic process from national and provincial level (education management plan), to the district level (curriculum management model), to the school level (instructional management model), to the departmental/subject level (teaching and learning model), to the classroom level (learning and assessment model), and to the learner level (learning and expectation plan).

The fourth domain is one of the most challenging issues to deal with, namely the educator orientation as to 'what education, curriculum, teaching, learning, assessment and learner success' is all about.  Very often, and due to the Apartheid training and development of some of our teachers, they have taken on a believes position that is inherently what was part of the agenda of the then government (perhaps they don't know this consciously).  For example, a significant amount of teachers in South Africa believe that 'a good test/ examination' is 'when a few must fail, a few must pass well, and the bulk must be in the middle or average'.  Well, it is sad if we believe that 'some learners must fail by design ... just hoping that those destined to fail do not include our personal sons or daughters in another school.  I often call this issue the BEAR IN EDUCATION, meaning teachers' Believes, Expectations, Attitudes and Relationships.

The final domain is the sustainability strategy.  Most underperforming schools are managed on a day-to-day, week-to-week, and at best month-to-month survival basis.  There is no long term strategy, other than often individuals giving their own opinions when you question them about the 'vision' of the school.  And these opinions will not include all the stakeholders in the education terrain, and more importantly, the recipients of the results of education, meaning the community (not school community).  There is often a perception that what someone somewhere in the chain of activities is doing, should just be accepted by the next person or group.  A very explosive example is the inability and/or unsuitability of most of our youth or matriculants who can't get a job after matric because they are not 'job ready'.  Well, some might say that they should not be job ready since they are suppose to go to higher education institutions.  We repeat this non-sensical process of preparing 100% of matriculants to go to higher education institutions, knowing full well that at best only 20% of them will eventually end up going, while the rest (80%) have not been prepared for being 'job ready' in any way, whether being employed or self-employed.  The interlinks and connection between these systems must be tightened in order for education to benefit those who are engaged in it ... the learners.

All these domains will be discussed in more detail at a later stage.