Having vowed to remain positive in all my blog postings, I
just need to describe this day to people who have ever attended training in the
world of educationalists. “Horror struck” was the best description of my state of
mind by midday. This was day 1 of a 2 day training programme for new
headteachers ………..well relatively new. They have all been in post for over 5
months with no funds and precious little guidance on anything.
The training was to begin at 8am and a few participants were
there ready at that time. I applaud their professionalism, as the course
facilitators were nowhere to be seen until 9am and then they changed the venue.
The first hour was spent removing desks from a classroom and filling it with
plastic chairs. People arrived in an assortment of coats and ear muffs and we
were all signed in and ready to start by 10am. However, we needed to wait for
the Director of Education to arrive. She had an important visitor, evidently.
So we all waited. Finally, chairs scraped as everyone stood to welcome her. She
addressed all assembled with various bits of random advice about managing
schools, declared the workshop open and left.
I am posting this photo of our Director sporting the new office uniform with 2 of her drivers.
10.30 and surely we must start the real business now! No,
there were pieces of housekeeping to be covered, like who would be workshop “secretary”
( the person who stayed awake, took notes and summarised the day at the end for
those who slept), “welfare” (ensuring there was enough water and dealing with anyone
who lost the will to live) and “time keeper” ( sorry, I collapsed at that
point). All this time phones were going off, not ringing, but bursting into the
most appalling disco music and folks went out to answer them. We VSO volunteers
were invited to say a little about our work, which was interrupted frequently
by one of the facilitators. There were three of them, District Officers, who
had clearly not discussed how the day would run nor agreed who would take which
responsibility. A little tension was obvious as someone came around dishing out
a pen and an exercise book each. There were still “Workshop Norms” to get
through….Phones off, punctuality and not interrupting people, were recorded! Fat
chance!
We did start then. The chief facilitator was interrupted
during his third sentence when it was announced “Breakfast is ready”! Don’t be
alarmed. This is Banku in a palm nut soup with cow meat and a dash of okra and
chilli. (eaten with your fingers!) It was actually, rather good, except I had recently eaten porridge and
a boiled egg. By 11.10 we had finished breakfast, a few more headteachers had arrived,
two backing babies and we were ready to resume our learning.
First session…. Scare all the new heads to death by going
through the Code of Professional Conduct word by word emphasising the misdemeanours
leading to dismissal! I almost resigned at that point until I remembered this
didn’t actually apply to me. The participants endured this session quietly
until “Sexual Offences” were mentioned and then most of the men laughed. This
isn’t the first time I’ve encountered inappropriate laughing by Ghanaian men. I
could suggest they don’t know how else to respond but I don’t know. Amongst unacceptable behaviours including
drinking and smoking in the classroom, for which examples of teachers were
identified from the district, caning of children was mentioned and should be
kept to a maximum of three strokes, by the way.
As the day wore on and people started to look forward to
their second meal, chicken and rice this time, attention turned to the process
of getting paltry sums of money from the District to run your school. We had 2
hours of painful bureaucratic descriptions of form filling and the gathering of
receipts for pitifully small amounts of money. It is clear that nobody should
be trusted and headteachers are expected to swindle the system and run off with
all the pencils and correction fluid they can find. They receive the princely
sum of 4.5 Ghana Cedis (£1.80) per child each year. The workshop ended abruptly
due to the imminent kick off (no two and a half hour delay there!) for Ghana’s
semi-final football match in the Africa Cup.
So much about this day horrified me. I am used to working
alongside professional headteachers who are in a position of authority and respect,
gained through hard work and ambition. They have climbed to that position over
years and jumped through numerous hoops to fight their way to headship. Here they are thrown into it, often against
their wishes, without training, support or resources. Some show initiative and
have a good idea about what would improve their schools. A little guidance and
direction can help individual heads to begin the process of developing their
staff and the educational provision in school.
Autonomy and imaginative leadership are not encouraged by the
authorities. It is too dangerous and they are not ready for it! They just want
headteachers who will toe the District line, keep order and complete the
correct forms. The status quo and staying quietly inside the box is most
acceptable. Oh, for the merest hint of trust!
I know heads among this group who could enjoy rich, professional rewards through
achieving exciting learning experiences with their staff and pupils. However,
they will need to be brave to take on the plodding dinosaur of the education authority
and break it’s gnarled back. Shaking off the exhaustingly mundane, pedantic and
painfully unimaginative expectations of the current system will take a lot of
confidence and motivation. When you are criticised much more often than you
receive praise or encouragement it is hard to believe you have skills and
qualities to offer as a leader. My heart & huge respect go out to all
headteachers who show initiative here and I pray they can be brave enough to
claw their way out of this suffocating box and give their schools individuality
and a chance of exciting learning. They and their children deserve it.
I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to day 2 !!
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