As we lay strategies for the academic year 2024, the starting point should be how to identify the shortcomings that are ailing our academic responsibility in schools or education centres. There are as many problems affecting different learning institutions as there are institutions themselves. Specific issues affect specific learning institutions as it were. Nevertheless, they hinder the expectations of academic appraisals and success as such. These problems range from poor academic structures, auto-piloting, traditional systems of leadership, monotony of staff-meetings that focus only the opener and end of term exams, poor or lack of departmental collegiality, lack of academic strategy meetings and dialogue, autonomy of managements from a few chosen members of the clique, and poor and static cultures established by some school managers.
Without a proper focus and collegial corporeality of the stake holders, such problems are inevitable, and they just end up becoming a social cry and desperate quagmire poor results, indiscipline, blame games and betrayal. Who is to blame about such problems? Certainly, all the stakeholders must carry the burden.
Just imagine a situation where the teaching staff is opposing the management for one reason or another. Where every word from the Principal must be questioned and spark a speck of resistance and go slow. Such is the institution where teaching is not from the heart but technical. Much of the valuable time is wasted and the morale broken due to a small problem that could be amicably address by the whole teaching fraternity. What is the benefit of mush-rooming the teaching staff to unreasonable clusters due to a problem of one person’s weakness anyway? What is the use of private Whats-App groups to discuss the principal and his or her right hand group? Where are the students, the main focus for every noble teacher?
Other schools suffer from the problem of resources. The principal takes the institution as his or her own property. Everything done is only known to him because there is no mode of communication. It’s not a wonder to find some visitors invited by the head of such an institution to talk to students in the name of motivation speakers or any other caliber. No information before hand, and no remote preparation. By the end of the day, the head together with his right wingers siphon quite a hefty share to put to their pockets. What a shame!
Other heads of schools are ever meager with the institution’s resource. Their song is always, “this will be done when funds are available!” Finish! Other teachers are ‘busy’ by nature; this or that game, this or that academic tour, ever nagging and putting blame on their seniors for not producing good performance. The school placement does not matter, but the results are always on the decline due to lack of dialogue.
Other schools suffer from hostile and unruly students. What is the cause of this? Is it background? Is it Poor entry results? Whatever the case, the school is categorized as ‘indiscipline.’ What could be the solution to this? Is it the official envelop that the head teacher uses to by a good name in the academic offices?
There are others managed by hyper types of personalities: drama queens, and kings, soccer heroes and heroine and so forth. Nothing more by external shining outside the institution, showing their latest model of buses. What a pity? No auditing when it comes to such. Some teachers are ever out while others are substitutes of duty and what have you. The most noble break times are ever used as times of back-biting, character trait traces and projections, where each blames the other. Groupings according to styles become normal and thereby sacrificing our dear students, the future leaders and the heritage of our noble nation of Kenya to limbo!
While the above highlights are just a point to many problems that ail our different institutions of learning, it is a challenge to each sane member of every such institution to ask ourselves this question: Why is our school ailing from the current downward trends? Why are we always shortchanged by the plans and expectations of our well- focused and aimed for mean score and grades? How have I personally contributed to this? Then let us sacrifice high handedness and pride and come down. to earth to rectify all these for the sake of a better future nation that is academically sound and fully baked. What is ailing your academic family out there?