“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6).
Patterns are the fruits of underlying roots that either haven’t been cut or dealt with. In the education sector, the one factor that seems to be a stigma in almost all the schools in various regions seems to be learner misconduct. As alluded to on the above statement, these are just fruits of a bigger tree, bigger than the Baobab. By perception, it seems like the symptoms experienced by a majority of educators have led many to extinguish the zeal for the profession, which at some point derails the benefits of yielding the very fruits of the profession itself. Most of the time, that which is left unchecked for a certain period magnifies itself into a disease without a cure and this will need the intervention of intensive care which in most cases may require double or even triple the administration of the antidote. The pandemic of learner misconduct has indeed intensified to such an extent that if a deliberate intervention is not administered properly, the whole education sector will experience a paralysis of producing counterfeit products that will manifest in societal destruction and a high decline in economic productiveness. The effect of rebellion can be seen as just child misbehavior but in actual fact, it’s a fig tree posing as a fruitful tree by displaying many leaves and many cannot see past the deception.
Learner misconduct is such a disease in our modern society today due to the fact that lab results fail to pinpoint the actual diagnosis, at this rate I believe we are at the stage where we can say “the doctors have lost hope”. In a nutshell, the absence of relevant players in the field will eventually lead to futility, meaning if two are not in agreement it will be hard to even walk a mile. If I were to make an example, I would say, if all the soccer players of a particular team are not in the same boat regarding the results of the match they are about to play, its futile to even expect a goal from the same team. To begin to administer an antidote to a sick patient, the lab must firstly confirm the disease, the doctor will then administer the treatment, after that the assignment will be to track the progress of the patient. Now the main goal behind this illustration is to reveal the chess play behind solving the issue of learner misconduct and through this illustration it can be confirmed that the problem can only be solved if all parties board the titanic. It’s quite imperative to outline the fact that radical change without proper/thorough investigative measures will escalate the disease even further, therefore before the administration of an antidote it is important to get the test results from the lab first. The key players of this game are DBE, parents, SGB, educators and slightly the community. One critical fact to note in this whole chain, is that in this regard educators are at the bottom of the food chain, and this is because these are the recipients of a product that is firstly designed by the government through its policies and parents through principles.
When you design a policy without firstly dealing with it on ground level, it means that it will not cover the whole scope. This is one mistake that policy makers tend to do, and in most cases the recipients are the ones already receiving damaged goods yet expected to produce a product that resembles fruitfulness. In a nutshell policy makers need to base policies through the lens of data, trends and most importantly fluctuating seasons. Taking these factors into consideration means establishing policies firstly from ground level perspective instead of an ariel overview. In the area of data, it is quite imperative to outline that not only efficiency is important but also effectiveness plays a role. These two terms play a fundamental role as one focuses on image and the other, the quality of the product and these quite also fuel the kind of reputation our schools have and the entire education system. Policies in their nature provide a guideline on how things ought to be done, so in this perspective it is also important for policy designers to note one critical factor when developing such, (who is this policy meant for, how does it help, what alternative measurers does it entail). Creating a one-sided governing document means crippling the entire system because the education journey involves not only one participant.
Every organisation consists of its own stakeholders, and as alluded above parents also have an ingredient in this plate. There is a concept that the community of mothers and fathers need to adopt in fighting this warfare, its called ‘Cutting the Cycle’. A broken society is as a result of broken homes, and broken homes are the results of no principles. Fact of the matter is that the first narrative to understand about the black community is that mostly we’re dealing with a lot of brokenness that is as result of either bad parenting or absent fathers etc… What we do in most cases is to relive the experience instead of ending the cycle. It’s a well-known fact that most things we get to know them through experience, however stewardship plays a fundamental role in our journey towards growth. The main idea here is that if our parents were not properly mentored, it then becomes quite an exercise to pioneer a new system, therefore they adopt that which they were brought up with. The twenty first century does not require a compromise in principle but discernment regarding which set of principles to apply. These stakeholders (parents) need to understand that if authority is not properly established where these learners originate from, it becomes hard for educators to lay a proper foundation. When two principalities clash it becomes chaotic because it then becomes a battle of power and authority, hence its crucial for all members to board the train.
In two words, I would describe the role of educators as to “Pioneer and Foster”. In this essence, pioneering speaks of that which the individual has received training to do, this speaks of the educator’s content-knowledge and pedagogical-knowledge. The daily initiatives that are conducted in the real-learning environment are basically measurers of pioneering new knowledge and comprehension about a variety of concepts, therefore the educator has a very critical role to fulfil in terms of setting a proper foundation for knowledge. The process of fostering speaks of a secondary role which includes, parenting (secondary), and mentoring. These two key roles are the primary enforcers of principles because these speaks to character and stature. The two key players that have a direct impact in this regard are parents and educators due to the fact that they are directly involved in the molding of this clay (learner). This means that every educator has a certain level of impact on their learners on a daily basis. In education terms, we say, “If we are not careful as educators, we can end up teaching as we were taught”, this statement simply illustrates the level of influence those we regard or esteem as mentors have on us.
Tumelo William Makubu
