We have very few definitive numbers in education, especially in the schooling system in South Africa. For example, if I register my child (say in grade 6) in your school, and ask you as the principal of the school, How many hours of teaching and learning can I expect my child to receive from your school?, what would be your response (lets quickly do the calculation???) It is extremely frustrating when you engage in a conversation with educators, officials and others, and the conversation is based on everyone's opinion about something that 'could and/or should be'. EVERYONE'S OPION IS AS IMPORTANT AND SPECIAL AND VALID AS EVERYONE ELSE'S OPINION. How can one management, which is about monitoring and evaluation, anything in education when there is no precise, specific, highly contested, unclear indicators in education?
Scratching through a myriad of education things, and for this conversation, I want to focus on the 27.5 hours per week (23 hours for grade R-2 and 25 hours for grade 3) teaching and learning time that is promised legislatively to all learners from grade 4 - 12 learners - and yes I know about the additional 30 minutes, but that opinion for another blog. This PROMISE is specific, clear, with no REINTERPRETATION needed if learners are not given these hours - it will need serious investigation as to the cause of it, and what needs to be done to correct this INJUSTICE. This is how serious we need to take every class and learner within our education system, who is given a DEAL less than the mentioned hours. Almost like the way we will react when someone is given us less petrol, etc. when we pay for the mentioned. If we bought say R500 worth of petrol, and the petrol attendant only throw in half of the petrol, but still take (or even expect) the full amount of R500. Or if someone is showing us only half of the movie, therefore not getting the FULL picture of the entire story (How valuable would half of the story be?). What and How would we react when people do this to us? Even the mildest people will be unhappy and clearly express their unhappiness about the situation. Well, what should I do if it happens to me? Certainly not sitting back and doing NOTHING!
In a strategic session with a circuit team, I advised the circuit manager that possibly her first quarter of every year should focus on principals accounting to her, EVERY WEEK, on the 27.5 hours of teaching and learning time, and to what extend they HONOURED that commitment to the learners. If not, they will have to explain what happened especially if the hours are less, and how they will make up these hours. It is not good enough to discover this problem after June holiday. This must be verified every week.
From the position of the principals, and for them to be able to account for this number, they will have to put together some systems to ensure that they KNOW, by the end of the week, what they are accounting on. The number of 27.5 hours (1 650 minutes) is made up of and even 5.5 hours per day (330 minutes), or an uneven distribution of hours over the week that will make up 27.5 hours. So, the head of departments and/or senior teachers must take responsibility and guidance to ensure that teachers honour every minute promised to the learners - Yes, every minute. We, as teachers, can't make a big deal when they underpay us on our salary bill, but we are okay with not honouring every minute to which that salary is connected to. Otherwise, the number are not adding up!
Improving our education system, and in particular the learner achievement and success in South Africa, is not located in TEACHER DEVELOPMENT, or CHANGING THE CURRICULUM, or ADDING ANOTHER 30 MINUTES FOR GUIDANCE, or any other. Lets ensure that all teacher are teaching their FULL hours of 27.5 hours per week (and here I am not talking about being at school for those hours), of the 34 teaching and learning weeks per year, and we will see miracles.
