Unleashing the power of Africa's teachers

Int J Educa.onalDevelopment.Vo117,No I, pp. 113-117.1997 Copynght0 1997ElsevterScienceLid Pnntedm GreatBntain.Allnghts reserved 0738-0593/97$17 O0 + 0 O0

Pergamon

S0738-0593(96)00046-6 UNLEASHING

THE POWER

OF AFRICA'S TEACHERS*

CAROL COOMBE Task Team on Education Management Development, Pretoria, South Africa Abstract - - This paper sets out a range of issues - - beyond those classics salary and housing-- which impinge on teacher morale and performance in Africa. Taking a hard look at the conditions under which teachers serve, it suggests possible strategies for tackling fundamental difficulties in practical ways. The paper attempts to reflect the experience and collective wisdom of educators across Africa participating in the Commonwealth Secretariat/Association for the Development of African Education (DAE) teacher management and support programme. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd

INTRODUCTION This paper is about teachers as professionals. It argues, on the basis of recent work by the Commonwealth Secretariat with ministries of education across Africa, and by the Association for the Development of African Education (DAE), that any innovation in teacher development in Africa will have only limited success if it takes place in a vacuum, if it is not accompanied by good educational and schools management practices. In many African countries teachers are expected to work under the most difficult of conditions; they endure overcrowded classrooms, unsafe and insanitary schools, abysmal housing, and the absence of the most basic classroom tools. As professionals, unlike those in legal, financial or medical careers, teachers are often not able to access skills development opportunities of their choice; they are at the mercy of bureaucracies which they perceive to be irrational, unpredictable and unresponsive. Teachers feel themselves disempowered by the system, and often by their own principals. Where growing emphasis is being placed on whole-school development and community participation in the education enterprise, the selfesteem of teachers is perhaps starting to rise. This

* The material is drawn from publications in ! 994 and 1995, principally Teacher Morale and Motivation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Making Practical Improvements by Ben Makau and Carol Coombe (London: Commonwealth Seeretariat/DAE, 1994), which have provided a conceptual basis for the joint Commonwealth Secretariat/Association for the Development of African Education (DAE) Teacher Management and Support Programme in Africa.

paper considers a matrix of interrelated interventions which need to be addressed coherently and consistently if teacher performance is to be significantly improved: salaries and conditions of service; better management of the teaching service; appropriate systems of teacher support; and a properly equipped school environment.

SALARIES AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE Most teachers in Africa do not receive a living wage, and as a result they moonlight, they shirk their professional responsibiities, they cannot cope. Nor can the system; the inadequate remuneration of teachers in Africa affects the attractiveness of the profession and its capacity to retain good professionals. Departure rates from teaching are high and the effect on the system is apparent. In rural primary schools particularly, teacher absenteeism, neglect of duty, and indiscipline are known to contribute directly to increased pupil indiscipline, absenteeism and repetition. There has been a notable reluctance on the part of African governments to find money to pay growing numbers of better qualified teachers as school enrolments rise. Teachers' salaries already consume up to 90% of the education budget in some systems, and pressure inevitably mounts to curb the salary costs of teachers, even where they are rightly viewed as the foundation of educational change and development. Severe budgetary constraints obviously dictate for now against substantial increases in teachers' salaries. Nevetheless, policy makers and planners must, in their dealings with teachers, reflect a 113

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positive intention to pay teachers a wage which enables them to give their best as professionals. In the interim, there are practical ways whereby teachers' conditions of service can be improved independent of salary levels. First, government can formally diversify the sources on which teachers draw for their livelihood by rationalising and streamlining benefits teachers already receive from outside the public budget (community-builthouses for example, and payments in cash or in kind from the community), decentralising fiscal responsibility, ensuring that women have access to the same salaries and emoluments as their male counterparts, and (determinedly, and at little or no cost) making sure that delays, inconsistencies, inconveniences and errors in paying teachers' salaries are eliminated or drastically reduced. Teachers' conditions of service need not be better than those of other civil servants, but they should be framed to suit the special nature of the education service. Conditions of service specific to education, which must be drafted in consultation with teachers' representatives, include leave arrangements, the length and configuration of the school year and the teaching week, the code which regulates the conduct of teachers, arrangements for transfers from one school to another, maternity leave arrangements, cover for teachers on leave, appraisal and staff development, and promotion arrangements. Housing provision is an issue which causes int~ase irritation among teachers; they believe, with some justification, that the standard of housing for other public servants is higher than that for teachers. Teacher performance depends, therefore, not just on salary income. It is also influenced by the efficiency, fairness and transparency with which those responsible for teachers' welfare negotiate with them, and transform negotiated agreements into tangible benefits for teachers and their families. Improved benefits are not necessarily an additional charge on the ministry's budget; rather they may be a charge against the administrative capacity and sensitivity of government officials. MANAGING THE TEACHING SERVICE Responsibility for managing the teaching service - - the largest cadre of workers in most African countries - - is fragmented among ministries responsible for finance, education and national planning, the public and/or teaching service commission, and cabinet office. The situation is exacerbated because ministries of education are too

often highly centralised, stratified and hierarchical, are perceived as being cumbersome and authoritarian, and may be prone to blocking innovation and change. Ministries of education, some of which are moving into the next century with neo-colonial infrastructures, lack organisational purpose and a clarity about the functions of various units at different levels. Within ministries of education, responsibility for managing teachers is scattered among the planning unit, the teacher training unit (where it exists at all), the inspectorate, personnel and finance departments, and the service commission. Because there is often no clearly articulated scheme of delegation to specific units, decision making and implementation tend to be concentrated in the office of the administrative head of the education ministry. This lack of clarity in management structures is evident to teachers who are subject to inordinate delays in matters of appraisal, promotion, confirmation, deployment, payment, pensions and discipline, often resulting from extreme disorder in teachers' registries, with files lost, stolen or strayed, failure to incorporate teacher records systems into evolving management information systems, continuing unsystematic collection, analysis, retrieval and use of data on teachers, and outdated and inefficient personnel procedures. A major shortcoming in public sector management in lower income countries, and of education management particularly, is an inclination to substitute political rhetoric for good management practice in complex situations. The tendency to fictionalise school life when planning how to improve the quality of teaching and learning has inhibited practical implementation. Uninformed policy will not improve the quality of education, or raise teacher morale and commitment. Neither will bad management. It is the quality of practical decision making, and the way in which the implementation of decisions is managed, which makes or breaks an education system. Bad management may explain more about Africa's educational failures than anything else. Thirty years of post-independence experience has demonstrated that however elegant the policy framework, its utility can only be judged by how it is put into practice. The education playing field in Africa is littered with political statements of intent, and the well-meaning and often carefully crafted plans of professionals. There has been a manifest failure, either of nerve or commitment,

UNLEASHING THE POWER OF AFRICA'S TEACHERS

to dedicate energy, talent and resources to the intricate complexities of managing the process of change and qualitative improvement. The building blocks for good education management are almost self-evident: • Rational procedures• Change can only occur when the organisation responsible for innovation is efficient and predictable, and when it is confident enough to honour the professionalism of teachers. • Scheme of service and division of labour. The scheme of service enables an organisation to state its mission, objectives, and functions, to allocate jobs and responsibilities, and to communicate these to all parties concerned. It thus enables the education ministry to delineate its own responsibilities vis-a-vis those of the service commission, for example, and between different levels of education administration, and in so doing creates a viable framework for teacher management. • Efficient and transparent administration. Whether administration of the te~/ching service is conducted from a district or regional office, or from ministry headquarters, or the teachers' service commission, there must be well-designed and functioning administrative systems, accurate and retrievable teachers' records, and accepted performance standards for staff administering the teaching service. • Legislation and regulations. In the interests not only of teachers but of their employers and the communities they serve, the basic principles and processes of labour relations must be agreed and applied to the teaching service. This includes fair and equitable conditions of service, freedom of association, collective bargaining, mechanisms for conflict resolution, appeals and grievance procedures, and the right to strike• • Liaison with teachers" organisations. Teachers' attitudes depend on the extent to which they are consulted about their working conditions. Experience shows that regular consultation, based on trust, and involving ministry personnel, teachers' organisations, and community and business representatives, can head off the kind of confrontation, signifying management failure, which has in the past characterised relations between the three parties. • Equal opportunities for women. Governments know how to eradicate remaining inequalities - - the absence of women in management

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posts, in secondary schools, and as science and mathematics teachers - - but perhaps lack political will to be guided by the principle of social equality for all. Discipline of those who abuse women in the teaching service must be strict, predictable and unyielding• • Management information system. Computerised information systems are essential tools for effective planning and management• Senior •managers need to know how to make use of the information provided by the system, and should, therefore, play an integral role in building the system so that it is both appropriate to their needs and readily accessible. • Decentralisation, deconcentration, devolution and delegation. Practical ways of devolving authority and decision making in education need to be coaxed from government bureaucracies. A devolved infrastructure is fundamental to the efficient management of the teaching profession. In practice, however, many ministries of education have either been reluctant or unable to allow field units to exercise real authority. • School-basedmanagement. Principals, their senior staff and members of the school community, must be properly trained and prepared to undertake greater responsibility for creating an effective management environment in schools• The last point is crucial. A sustainable system of management and development which is centred on the school has the potential to assist both the ministry and individual schools to provide an improved education service. School staff and parents need to be empowered to negotiate their own priorities for development within the school, within the framework of national policies. This process evidently has the capacity to enhance the professionalism and self-esteem of both teachers and principals, and to ensure that ownership of school goals belongs to the individual school, its staff and its community. PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS The organisation of the professional wings of education ministries, their resources, the way their staffare appointed and trained, the way they work and interact with teachers, are all bound to affect the way teachers teach. Support structures. First, both the inspectorate

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and the service commission - - the mix differs from country to country - - may be responsible for different aspects of the career progression of teachers. Because more than one authority is involved, and because each has its own criteria for promotion, teachers may feel that the appraisal and promotion system is neither transparent nor fair. Secondly, resource constraints have led to neglect of the professional wings of education ministries in lower income countries for some time. Symptoms of that neglect include the conventional way in which inspectorates continue to work, and inspectors are appointed. In practice inspectors tend too often to act (and are seen by school staff) as policemen, making teachers feel less professional, that they are subordinates rather than trusted professionals. It is unlikely that expansion of school inspectorates will ever match the rate of school expansion. Alternative ways of monitoring and influencing standards of performance in schools are needed. For example, it is possible for a small centralised inspectorate to act as a quality assurance unit, evaluating and promoting good classroom practice, and disseminating its findings to the ministry and the public, to local supervision and guidance units, and to schools. The role of such a unit would be to advise rather than to judge; to offer tools for evaluating policy and practice, for measuring the effectiveness of existing policies, and identifying the reasons for success or failure. It would also evaluate the quality of support provided by a completely separate development service, staffed by advisers responsible for curriculum development and implementation, spreading ideas about good practice, providing teachers with professional support, and for helping schools deal with implementation problems. Professional support strategies. The current pattern of teacher development including initiatives of many units (inspectorate, curriculum development centres, education management institutes, field education officers, NGOs and teacher organisations) is characterised by a high degree of ad hocery, especially where a national capacitybuilding policy is not in place. Generally, the courses or workshops offered do not provide comprehensive career development opportunities for the profession. Beyond that, teachers may not perceive that the way in which candidates are selected for upgrading is fair and transparent. There are still too few chances for teachers to

access staff development programmes according to their own inclinations, and taking account of the time they are able and willing to commit. Better approaches - - in terms of cost, accessibility, content and materials - - to teacher training and upgrading must be found. Research and experience indicates that such approaches will balance relatively brief pre-serviee teacher preparation, followed by systematic in-service training; parallel and complementary exposure to pedagogical theory and practice; and a combination of induction training and career-long development opportunities. To make this happen, there needs to be a focus of responsibility for teacher development within the ministry of education, and commitment to both continuous on-the-job development of teachers as well as to a more participatory approach at district and school levels, founded on a partnership of trust with teachers and their organisations. The success of school- and district-based I N S E T - - which is difficult to manage-- depends on creating multi-faceted opportunities which are freely accessible to most teachers, and on making available well-written and carefully designed resource materials for teachers in their schools. Finally, there is now a general unanimity that school principals must play a leading role in maintaining and improving standards, allocating resources effectively, and providing leadership to school staff. Experience has shown that principals' success in this regard is greatly enhanced by appropriate professional development before promotion and on-the-job as well. School-based staff development may be the only viable way of providing regular, properly-planned professional support for teachers, and principals must be prepared for this responsibility. THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT The emergence of whole-school development approaches in Africa indicates that the school is being put back at the centre of the education system, at least in theory. Some educators argue that it is at the chalk-face that real improvement in the teaching and learning environment must first take place. That will remain to be seen as systems begin to untangle what is meant by terms like whole-school development, school-based planning and management, professional support systems, local management of resources, and community involvement in schools. It is not the intention of this paper to dwell at

UNLEASHING THE POWER OF AFRICA'S TEACHERS

and to raise their own morale. Feedback on examinations is invaluable for school-based INSET and local curriculum development. Teachers have the right to, and ministries of education have a responsibility to provide, a basic nationally-agreed minimum standard of facilities; reasonable physical surroundings, adequate furniture and equipment, decent housing, and enough teaching and learning materials to support the curriculum.

length on the teacher in the classroom. It is perhaps enough to consider some elements of the school environment which are known to affect teacher performance: • Teachers must be involved in running their schools; they have the right as professionals to be consulted in setting school objectives and managing school resources. • As parents and school communities are called upon to provide more and more of the resources needed by their children's schools, they too have the right to be informed about and to be involved in their management. • Teachers, as professionals and as implementers, have the right to be consulted about curriculum development, and the adaptation of centrally-mandated curricula to local conditions. • The skills and preferences of teachers need to be taken into account in reforming examination systems, as a way of encouraging them to nurture higher order mental skills in children,

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If education ministries could ensure this alone that schools have books, teachers' guides, and supplementary instructional materials - - many educators believe that teachers would become the powerhouse to drive the revitalisation of education in Africa. But teachers need recognition of their role and they need to be sustained in it. This paper has tried to suggest some inter-related interventions which can re,ore to teachers their professional pride, their dignity and their self-esteem. -