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HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SCHOOL'S ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE.
Educational standards have fallen short of the glory of old, students are performing more poorly than before, many schools are bemoaning the inability of their students to keep up the standards or even improve upon the performance of previous years. The situation is that bad, yet other schools too are performing to very outstanding levels. What exactly are the high performance schools doing that the lower ranking schools ain't doing?
Read this article from the renowned educationist and former headmaster of DLS who has also lectured EFL at Alliance Française de Tema, and taught in about six Senior High Schools in Ghana, E. Yao Agbenyo. He suggests a few adjustments you could do to achieve the outstanding result you want.
THE MISTAKES OF SCHOOL MANAGERS.
School Managers as used here refers to those who fall within the range from the Head, Principal, Proprietors to the Departmental or Unit heads on the organogram.
The first mistake is the temptation to treat staff members like their students. Some school Managers tend to believe in the school master ideology where they lead staff members like students. Probably, the thought is that if I relate with them, they’ll disrespect me and not work to their best. Hear this, staff members are not babies, they know what is good or bad. You can relate with them cordially and be more respected than you will be when you distant yourself from them, trying to force them into subordination. If you respect staff members, research says, they feel more obligated to put in their best than when you bully them around.
Absence of periodic, methodological, and Pedagogical updates and seminars for teachers.
This is best done at Departmental levels, but could also be done for a whole staff. On every staff, there are more experienced ones who could be made to address the staff on salient educational practices. This is good for the non professional members of staff in particular. Yet, attention should not be only on the old members of staff to lead such sessions, some of the younger teachers even have better ideas. When school managers refuse to this, giving very flimsy excuses, they should not expect very good results. Here, employ the examiners in the various subjects to tell you what exactly the expectations of the examiners are during the international exams, because sometimes, their expectations are miles apart from what some teachers teach in the classroom.
Wrong subject teachers. Some school managers put square pegs in round holes, yet expect outstanding results. That’s self mockery, and ironical. Teachers must be made to teach subjects they specialize in for effective, and efficient teaching, and learning. For instance, in some schools, petroleum engineers who did not get their preferred jobs are placed in class to teach mathematics and science, when the students fail, you cry wolf. Why ? Ghanaian language teachers, teaching core English, and Literature in English (a very technical and expertise oriented subject). Administration must sit up and correct these things if they really need the results. If they are not just pretending to be fighting.
The laissez-faire leadership. In as much as it is rewarding to respect teachers and make them feel welcome, loved, and trustworthy, it is also dangerous to presume that all teachers love their work and will do their best, and to as a result, neglect the important tenets of management and administration which include monitoring and evaluation. There are indeed, teachers with so many businesses in town who seek the slightest loophole to sneak out of work to their businesses. There’s othing wrong with a teacher having other businesses for himself, but he must know how to manage his time in order to be with his businesses at the right time. Bear in mind, some humans work better under pressure. Additionally, some teachers may miss certain deadlines because they forget a particular schedule or something else cropped in u expectedly. Research says that, school managers who know when, and how to apply human face to staff offences, and show empathy and understanding where necessary, have their staff members working extra hard when they regain full schedule. Have you ever heard teachers say that « If the hunters learn to shoot without missing, the birds too will learn to fly without perching » ? That is what is done to overly strict, heartless, and egotistic school managers. So, supervisor, supervise, monitor, evaluate, but don’t forget the humanity of humanity.
Let’snot forget this, that in the absence of teaching and learning materials, outstanding results will remain a mirage. The best managers provide their staff with the right materials. In schools where science, and home science departments have no labs for practical lessons, teachers have no markers to write on the boards, students have no chairs to sit on, classrooms are inadequate, TVs and projectors, even where available, are not in good shape, yet administration is unconcerned, cannot perform any magic to halt the abysmal performance of students.
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING UNITS
One of the most indispensable, yet overlooked units in schools is the guidance and counseling units. This unit requires someone who has specialised in this area. Suicide is on the rise, students are studying wrong courses, subjects that have no links with their interest areas and future aspirations. If the student has no interest in the subject, forget about results. Serminars must be organized with seasoned and passionate speakers with stories and experience to speak to the students on the essence of education, How to learn, Time Management, and others. One on one counseling sessions should be organized, students should be called at random sometimes for questioning and counseling.
THE TEACHER
A teacher who doesn’t have a firm grip of the subject he/she teaches will surely produce students with bad results. Sit, down, sit up and learn, read to keep your mind abreast with what the new trends of Teaching are, and ask questions from superiors, and seniors. Our teachers must be humble enough to know that they can’t know everything, and even what you know, sometimes you forget as if you never learnt them at all. Teaching is an art, and a science. Read more to know more.
The teacher as Loco Parentis is a Pedagogical practice that must not be overlooked. This means the teacher is the parent of the child in school. You can only be an effective parent if you employ the new research area ; Teacher-Student Care. Read more about that. Students tend to love subjects of teachers who show care and affection towards them, no matter how difficult the subject is presumed to be, and this ultimately translates into Sterling performance. Monitor, evaluate, and employ the right teaching methodologies in the classroom, and ensure that your students get the right information they need to pass the exams. Do not forget this, that a student who claims to have learnt, but cannot recollect, has not learnt at all.
THE PARENTS/GUARDIANS
Parents should be sensitized to be ready to spend on the education of their wards. Some parents today prefer to spend money on funeral dresses, engagement and other events than they are ready to spend on their children. This is because they do not know the value of spending their all on the education of their children. Funny enough, some parents are of the view that they might not live to enjoy the fruit of their labours, hence would want to enjoy all they have now while they can. Such parents need total mentality reorientation at the PTA meetings.
CONCLUSION
Let our school managers make their staff members needed, wanted, valuable, and trustworthy, ensure that the teachers are teaching with the right qualifications and subject areas. If the guidance and counseling section does its work well, and the students are really well oriented constantly and consistently, with the right teaching and learning materials, plus the right atmosphere, conducive for effective teaching and learning, we can have the best results.
©2019. Ebenezer Yao Agbenyo (The Yao Agbenyo)
