Nothing tells more of a hurried ,half thought and doggedly carried out implementation of a 100 % transition from primary to secondary schools than the breaking at the seam of schools with overcapacity number of students.
That it a policy that classes which should ideally have 45 students are demanded to carry about 70 students by the ministry mandarins speaks of a ministry of education determined to pursue at all odds a scotched earth policy in admitting all students to secondary schools at the expense of quality outcomes in teaching.
The ministry and its surrogate T.S.C should have first of all -had they not have put the cart before the horse undertaken a massive employment of teachers to cater for such huge numbers of students. The teachers on the field are stretched paper thin.Handling a class of 70 students needs special skills.
Paying attention to individuals learners cease.Teachers of languages find it a Herculean task to mark all compositions. Practicals in sciences becomes a nightmare. How do you fit a class of 70 into a room meant for 30 students at most?Let us talk no much on availability of apparatus.
How do you supervise such a huge number of students as they handle their apparatus in double lesson of 80 minutes? What more?Some schools have converted their dining halls in dormitories. At their own expense. Some have students learning in tents. Too much for quality education.
Iam puzzled why education is not part of big four.Education needs a re thinking,from basic education to tertiary education. The government seems to have interest of learners first. It pays little attention to human capital.
A brief history? Look out at the roll out of universal education by the NARC government, the government insisted on every child to school.The population of pupils ballooned. This never went in tandem with improving of school infrastructure nor in adding up the needed labour force.
Teachers were were over worked.The resources strained and clicked under the huge population.Results? Standard of education plummeted. The middle class pulled their children from public schools to fancy academies.Teachers preferred not to let their kids learnt in the same schools they were teaching but in these elite academies.
Any massive change of a policy, the education stakeholders must note must go hand in hand with strategic planning and pin point execution.Any general going for a war knows that he must put all resources and effort in place with pin point accuracy and on top of all ,he execute all his tactics and strategies with laser accuracy otherwise his army flop and lose the battle.
Were education ministry an army would it have won it war?You guess is good as mine.
But it seems we put the numbers before efficiency. TSC need to solicit for funds from the exchequer to employ more teachers. The recommended teachers ,students ratio need to be adhered to.The work force needs to feel motivated. The endless cat and mouse court battles between the teachers’ employers T.S.C and Unions need to come to halt,for if these 100 % students transition must come into fruition, then all hands needs to be on the deck.
Teachers dream of promotion and better pay.How does this help in provision of quality education? I hear you ask.Allow me answer you,do you not take care and eliminate all the ills facing the software before you get the gut to figure out what is wrong with the hardware?
Right now you expect to a full blown construction boom in schools having 8 streams of form one classes but you will hardly find one.Inadequate infrastructure and inadequate numbers of teachers plague this transition but the ministry is determined to plunge through.The short coming are legion.
Schools employ as many as 20 B.O.G teachers.A cadre of ill paid teachers ,barely motivated and who will desert the schools at blinking notice of a greener pastures. This teachers are paid by students. Money meant for laboratory apparatus is diverted to pay these teachers salaries.
Meanwhile students take lesson s under worn out apparatus and congested rooms.This trial and error execution of transition from primary to secondary schools is still the one we are witnessing in the roll out of competence based education.
Today the roll is halted,and tomorrow it is ignited again. On and off.At least it on now.But look at the execution. Poor score.No policy framework to guide the roll out.No intensive capacity building among the stakeholders.
Take a poll among the teachers and many I assure you are ignorant of coming changes. Sensitization of in coming changes is almost non existence. Teachers Ill prepared and badly equipped on techniques and implementation of the needed changes.
The education ministry and other stakeholders must play the ball squarely as it on their courts, it must spearhead,plan in advance, and in a smooth flow, with gaps roll out any change it midwife in the education sector for it gain the full backing and trust from the public. For it seems its hands are full and overwhelmed by the many changes it fronting-from the roll out of competence based curriculum to this 100% transition.
It comes out as if the ministry have bite more than it can chew.But there is still time for the corcerned parties to go back to the drawing board and straighten that which seems to be going wrong before all wheels come out.
For once the horse of quality education bolting out of the staple with all these shortcomings, it will a massive effort and resources to bring it back into the staple.
(The writer is a self published author, a psychologist ,and write at www.4sightsite.WordPress.com)
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4sightsite 