Awareness: Do we know what we don't know in Education? Example 1 - The need for extra Saturday and Holiday classes for Matric learners

I have been looking at these reported 'noble and committed' teachers and learners who sacrifice their Saturdays and sometimes holidays to attend extra classes.  Some MECs for Education in certain provinces even plan their 'holiday classes' in advance, as early as January of a particular year.  Why are we doing it, and why do we find this act to be part of the norm?

Well, maybe I need to give some background as to why I am asking this question.  Most countries in the world have an average of 200 school days in a year.  Some have a longer day than others, but 200 days are somehow the accepted norm as to the time needed to teach, facilitate learning, and assess learning during a particular year period.  The understanding is that these days are enough, if utilised effectively and efficiently, for the average learner to master whatever is needed.  Obviously, if you have 'slow learners' or those who are 'challenged', then teacher will extend their available time to ensure the success of these learners.  So, why is it that South Africans find it an heroic act when our learners need more days, compared to other countries?

Maybe we can look at this from two angles.  Firstly, some learners who are serious about a high level of success during examination time, might need these 'extra' time to cement their learning.  But this is not why the MECs and others want them to attend these classes - it is often earmarked for those learners who are not successful.  And in South Africa, it will be the majority of our learners, since only 42% of our learners who started grade 1 in 1999, ended up writing the matric examination in 2010.

So, the second reason is to give those who have not mastered their learning content, or have been failing during the year, or who  are seeming to struggle with the mastering of the learning content, another opportunity of support.  Well, the reality is that dysfunctional schools, and to a lesser degree, underperforming schools are only utilising between 65 to 70 days of the available 175 days for teaching and learning per year.  More than 100 days are wasted in most of our schools (about 80%).  So, if our learners need more time for teaching and learning because the school is not organising, managing and providing the maximum amount of time for them to learn, then the solution is not to get more Saturdays and holidays to provide them time for teaching and learning, but to fix up the non-utilisation of the 100 days.  I spoke to my second year teacher training students about this issue, and it looks like most schools see this as 'normal' - that you waste 100 teaching and learning days during the year, and then try to make it up with these Saturdays and holidays - sad!

In any basic 'organisational development' thinking, if you need to have 'extra' days, then it is an indication that your planning is not done well.  Therefore the need for extra days is an indication that things are not 'going or done well' somewhere in the system, and adding additional days is not fixing up the 'cause' of the problem.  Because we don't see high functioning schools needing these days - and it is not that their learners are better than our learners in dysfunctional and underperforming schools.  It is that they are the recipients of bad planning, bad leadership and management, and a system that cares less about them as learners.

And let me tell you that what I am sharing with you is 'no rocket science', but we need people with commitment and will to change this behaviour - don't blame the teachers because they are only doing what they are allowed to do, even if it is negative to education system as a whole.

Awareness is a Choice, not a Right

I have been meeting up with education officials at district and circuit level for the past two weeks, and most of them asked me the same question: Why don't you train us as circuit managers (the old inspectors) to do the turn around work that you are doing?  At first, I thought it was a 'short cut' for them not to get to a commitment to turn around their schools, but after deep reflection, I realised that the ability to 'be aware' and to 'see things' is actually a choice.  One can go through life, deciding that you only want to see those things which are preferred or comfortable to see, and so you either not see them, or decide not to see them.  A typical example from our past, was those who decided not to see the destructive influence of Apartheid on our society.  Certainly, the recent events of powerplay and positioning within politics are none different than those past events - just different actors, same greed.

Lets get back to education - those who are caught up with a 'compliance' perspective, are actually denying themselves the opportunity to see what is really wrong with our schools.  During a recent two days session with 110 senior leaders of schools within the Bushbuckridge area, which was hosted within Thulamahashe (take note that the GPS spelled it Thulamahaxi) circuit, a 'lightbulb' when on.  It was during this workshop that I realised that the entire education system is focused on 'policy compliance', and therefore they (education officials) can't see the real problems within education.  When you focus on policy compliance (ticking all the right boxes in the checklist), you are looking for policy intent, and not people outcome.  That is why our education reports from different education officials contain numerous of the following phrases: "... we are making progress ...", "... we are moving in the right direction ...", "... it is not the policy that is a problem, rather than the implementation ...", etc.  Evaluation and monitoring of the policy process is often not subjected to clear indicators which are quantitative in nature (meaning that one can independently judge whether they are achieved or not), but they are rather very qualitatively expressed.  They are often only 'input' indicators and not 'process' nor 'output' indicators.  For example, they will express the need to have a workshop/meeting, but not indicate what the results from the meeting/workshop should be.  Most of our policies, if not all, are not describing the baseline situation (where we are), the processes or steps we would go through (how we need to get there), and most importantly, what are the targets, indicators, outcomes and result points (what the dream looks like) when these policies are implemented successfully.

During the second day of the mentioned workshop, one of the principals, in an honest and open way, expressed that he was under the impression that we needed to change the previous apartheid education system in a way that would have retained most of the characteristics of the past education system.  In fact, he was looking for a 'Black Education' system, but just with another name.  I then realised that the apartheid system has succeeded to 'imprison' our minds, and that we as Blacks, have taken on the 'masters' plan without realising it.  Our perception of 'what education can be' is not based on the open possibility of the future, but rather not our 'narrow experiences of the past', let alone the vast opportunities of the now (presence).

Awareness is therefore a choice of seeing 'what is in front of you', and not 'seeing what you want to see', nor 'seeing yesterday within today'.  And this is an absolute choice ... if you want it, you will get it.  And it is not available for a selected few!  But if you want it, you need to be open to the presence, and have to commitment yourself to deal with what will confront you, no matter how difficult and/or unacceptable the present or reality is - seeing it for what it is, and for what it could be.  So, South Africans, if you want to eradicate all your dysfunctional schools within the next three to five years, it is certainly possible, but you will have to make that choice ... hopefully sooner rather than later.