HEAD TEACHERS SHOULD BE VISIONARY ADMINISTRATORS

Sir,

May I first congratulate government for its bold decision of bringing education closer to every child. It started with the OVC programme, where orphans and vulnerable children, who hitherto were struggling to go to school, were catered for.

To go to good to better, government introduced the Free Primary Education programme about six years ago. Very commendable but not in the eyes of professional critics in our society. I am never concerned about the negative comments people pass about the initiatives because no matter how expertly the chick dances, the kite will never appreciate it.

My concern is why even head teachers, or should I call them ‘opposition camouflages’, do not see anything commendable in what government does for the education of citizens. If one has the experience of what is happening in many countries with bigger resources, and compare it with what is happening here, one cannot help but give government a big thumbs up.

Agreed, the operators of any developing system could make mistakes here and there in their efforts to initiate and implement innovative policies, but one cannot take them to the gallows for such. After all, who does not make mistakes? It is the one who is actively engaged in doing something, not the one who is passively sitting in his comfort zone with arms folded.

The resolution by SWAPA (Swaziland Principals Association) in a recent meeting to ‘lock the schools and hand over the keys’ because of purported imminent lack of accommodation, leaves much to be desired, especially coming from people on whom the public places a lot of premium. The FPE programme, which is in its sixth year, started when most of these ‘schools locking’ heads were teachers in their various schools. They should, therefore, have been able to foresee the imminent shortage of or lack of classrooms to accommodate the products of FPE going to Form I.
A leader is a person who sees the challenges far away and puts machinery into motion to arrest the challenges before they arrive.
That is a visionary administrator and I believe our head teachers are supposed to be visionary administrators.
Head teachers are supposed to be the eyes and ears of the Ministry of Education in the grassroots. They are supposed to offer constructive and visionary suggestions to the ministry for prompt action to avert such a looming challenge. I believe that if there were wax in the ears of the ministry, the heat of the constant reminder would have melted the wax.

Head teachers are not on record to have done this, so the question is; must they or are they justified to stand on the shameful platform of their own failure to blackmail the ministry for its seeming failure to provide classrooms?

I am in no way trying to exonerate the ministry from blame from this looming tragedy of good intentions. I have every cause to believe that the honourable minister and officers in the ministry have the situation under control but are keeping it close to their chests, waiting for the right time to give us a surprise. That is if this surprise does not include packing the pupils like sardines in the few available classrooms. The minister knows it more than any of us that such would be counter productive in as far as learning and teaching is concerned.

All hands must be on deck to make sure that our children will be comfortably accommodated in classrooms to continue with their schooling. The ministry should select two private schools, with space, in each region, engage them in a round table to offer spaces to some of the children and agree to take what government pays for them in public schools. They conveniently did it for the OVC programme until it was stopped with an untenable excuse.

The only concession to be given to private schools would be the early payment of their grants since they pay their own staff.  It would not solve the problem 100 per cent but it would help in arresting the challenges of the ministry under whose umbrella they operate.  If head teachers cannot be a solution to the problem, they should please not be part of it, blackmail is not a lawful tool.

Joab
 

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