Is this what the UK’s education system can learn from low-tech Africa?
![‘My students are making the sort of weekly progress that would make an inspector drool.’ [Image: Alamy].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/161127-African-students-Alamy.png)
‘My students are making the sort of weekly progress that would make an inspector drool.’ [Image: Alamy].
Discussion of it always falls into the same problem – where to lay blame/make changes.
When central government, regional assemblies and local councils all have a say – not to mention school governors themselves, and don’t even get me started on the private influence brought in with academisation – it’s no surprise that so many teachers end up with work-related stress problems.
Perhaps this snapshot of working conditions and job satisfaction abroad is the kind of information we need (although I doubt anybody in a position to take positive action will even pay attention to it).
This line is extremely telling:
“It’s a low-pressure, high-freedom environment that places absolute trust in its teachers’ abilities. As a result, my students are making the sort of progress that would make an inspector drool.”
Low-pressure? Yes. In the UK ‘The Secret Teacher’ had 130 students; in East Africa, 75 – with no “emergency data-meetings, twilight Insets, morning briefings, and admin-centric departmental meetings”, no “box-ticking exercises of bloated middle-management teams”, no “sharp-suited Machiavellis, clinging desperately to iPads and spreadsheets in the hope that they are projecting a credible image of what a manager looks like”.
So perhaps this is the lesson the UK needs to be taught: Don’t over-manage schools and teaching.
Give them just one boss to satisfy, and make sure that they have a straightforward set of criteria to meet: “We want English to a minimum of this standard, Maths to this standard, Science to this standard”.
And let them get on with it.
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“Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.” ― Mark Twain
The education system as a retired teacher told me was to look after children when there parents go to work, and that is all, A local Academy to me is £1 million in debt and as I understand it so are a lot more, but what do you expect with all the fingers in the pie all wanting a cut and a big fat handout as they move on.
It seems that the educationalists need to be educated as to what education is.
I am amazed that this person had to go to Africa to realise how flawed the education system is here. Just ask any experienced teacher, especially if that teacher can remember working in a good LEA that supported schools in their school improvement and teacher inservice training, were not hamstrung by short sighted stringent cuts in budgets, or forced to work in academy schools where “teaching” colleagues are not always qualified teachers!