FABRICACIÓN DE PROD METÁLICOS MAQUINARIAS Y EQUIPOS

The process of transforming the schools came at different levels with certain emphasis by all the seven principals in the schools. The common denominator is that all these principals in these rural schools were not satisfied about the status quo. Inspite of the diverse approaches they adopted, there were common areas they identified as priority areas. For instance, staffing was regarded as an area that needed the attention of the school principal; hence, the initiative that was taken by the Principal of Kuhle Secondary to change those SMT members who poorly

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performed in their subjects. The Principal of Kuhle Secondary on the other side probed into the issue of qualifications of the teachers. He did this to ensure that all teachers were qualified to teach the subjects given to them. After that exercise, there was staff reshuffling, which affected subjects such as Accounting, Physical Sciences, Maths and Geography. Furthermore, the Principal of Kuhle Secondary conducted an audit of staff qualifications. The outcome of these changes at Kuhle Secondary were positive.

The process of auditing the educators’ qualifications and moving in new educators assisted learners because most of these subjects were forming combinations and learners who failed two or more fail the entire examination, thus resulting in the overall underperformance from the school (Kuhle Secondary).

The principals started to initiate the process by which stakeholders would take ownership of the examinations results; this can be seen at Kuhle and Mathafeni Secondary Schools where principals were new in the schools. A process of carefully analysing the results was initiated as the starting point. This was done in order to ensure that whaever discussions held were based on facts. In order to ensure that all the key stakeholders were part of the process, the principals first, involved the closest stakeholder; the SMT. The Principal of Kuhle Secondary engaged the departmental heads. These were supposed to hand over their subjects to new teachers, whereas the Principal of Siyaphambili Secondary prioritised the issue of examinations and the assessment processes, which were a critical factor for leading teaching and learning. This is what the principal said:

I had to work on the school’s turnaround process, which was also to address the issue of the examinations and the assessment process (Siyaphambili Secondary).

The Principal of Siyaphambili Secondary initiated strong working relations with the parents in order to address issues at school as part of turning things around (Jensen, 2013). As part of the process, the Siyaphambili principal worked with the Department for support from Sub- Directorates. Learners were informed of the importance of staying in their classrooms at all times studying. The role of the principal was to provide support on decision-making and facilitate teambuilding activities at Siyaphambili Secondary. On the other hand, Thando Secondary involved the parents and other stakeholders who have an interest in school activities. At Thando Secondary, the principal entered into a consultative process with a variety of stakeholders as part of identifying issues leading to failure and seeking solutions.

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The meeting with the SMT after which we called the educators because they were also supposed to contribute to the understanding about why underperformance occurred in their subjects. We also did not like being referred to as underperforming or T60 school, and being called to account as the principal of the ‘YoYo’ school (Thando Secondary).

The Principal of Mathafeni Secondary engaged the SGB, the teachers and the previous principals of the school. The Principal of Siyaphambili Secondary met all the required stakeholders to take the plans as part of the process of consultations.

All of the seven principals worked jointly with other stakeholders in embarking on the process of tuning the schools around. Such a move is consistent with current literature in educational leadership and management (Chikoko, et al., 2015;Maringe, et al., 2015). All of the principals were initiators of the process of turning the school around. This demonstrates the responsibility of the principal as the leader in the school (Chikoko, 2018; Gillet, Clark & Donoghue, 2016; Steyn, 2018). At Kuhle Secondary, the principal took responsibility for engaging various stakeholders; these included the SMT, the SGB, the parents, the learners and other interested parties. However, at Mathafeni Secondary, the principal had engagements with the previous principals in order to get an understanding of the issues at play at school. In these inclusive meetings, the Principal of Mathafeni Secondary included the SMT, staff members, the teachers, the parents and the SGB chairperson as relevant structures to be brought on board (Chikoko, et

al., 2015;Maringe, et al., 2015). This consultation process assisted the Principal of Thando Secondary to get the support of the Shembe religious parents, without which it would have been difficult to roll out the plan for Saturday classes. The Principal of Siyaphambili further elaborated on the plans as follows:

The plan clearly articulated the objectives, the targets and timeframes in order to ensure that the plan was successful. The following requirements were stated, educators had to go to class on time and be prepared; class representatives were asked to control the period register. The principal was responsible for the control of the period registers. If an educator was not going to class on time, he/she will be called into the principal’s office to explain why such an act happened and re-commit that such an act will not happen again as formal disciplinary process will be instituted in terms of Employment of the Educator’s Act of 1998 as amended (Siyaphambili Secondary).

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The conceptions of the turnaround plans were communicated widely within the schools, and wide consultion happened. The principal did this as part of ensuring that the turnaround strategy and vision were understood by all and that there was ownership of the process. The plans that were conceived from these consultative meetings became what I can call ‘clear marching orders’ for a new trajectory. The consultative process shows the power of sharing the vision by the leadership of the school with all those who have a role to play in turning around the school culture (Leithwood, et al., 2012). In the next section, I focus on the role that SMTs played in the transformation process.

6.3.6.1 The role of SMTs as a collective in the transformation process

The cogwheel in the process of transformation is the SMT (Leithwood, et al., 2012). SMT members play a critical transformative agenda in turning the performance of a school. As noted in the previous paragraph, some principals played a critical role in ensuring that their SMT members performed to the expectations. For instance, the Principal of Siyaphambili conducted orientation sessions for the newly appointed teachers before handing them over to departmental heads. At Siyaphambili Secondary, departmental heads were responsible for monitoring curricular work of teachers by checking their files and adherence to the ATPs. They also assisted with the tracking of curriculum implementation by teachers and checked learner workbooks and focus areas. Effective teaching and learning is paramount; hence, it is important for the departmental heads to check the educators’ files and the ATPs to ascertain a clear picture about work that has been covered and check learners’ exercise books to see if there was any correlation from the educators recordings and what appeared on the learners exercise books.

The SMT members were given the responsibility of supporting the novice Grade 12 teachers at Kuhle Secondary. It must be noted that the schools in the deep rural areas were experiencing difficulties within the SMT team, due to incapacity and wrong allocation of departmental head to the discipline. In this instance, I can cite a story of Siyaphambili Secondary school, where the departmental head left the school due to non-performance and a wrong placement. The Principal of Kuhle Secondary assigned clear roles of curriculum monitoring. As part of monitoring at Kuhle Secondary the departmental heads checked the teacher curricula files and verified the progress in learner workbooks. All of the above work is assigned to SMTs as part of curriculum management (Leithwood, et al., 2012).

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At Siyaphambili Secondary, great support was given to the teachers as part of the rotation system based on performance. The role of the departmental head was to monitor this process and guide the new teachers offering subjects in Grade12. Teachers were given liberty at Siyaphambili Secondary on issues that are of benefit to the school. The role of the Siyaphambili Secondary principal was to provide support and promote team building amongst staff members. This view is supported by literature reviewed in Chapter Two (Leithwood, et al., 2012). The Principal of Siyaphambili Secondary assigned monitoring of educators’ curriculum files to the Departmental Heads (DHs). The other role assigned to DHs was to track the implementation of the curriculum by verifying leaner workbooks. The role of the principal at Siyaphambili Secondary was to check the work of DHs. The Principal of Thando Secondary initiated a plan for a turnaround strategy as espoused in the work of Leithwood, Louis and Anderson (2012).

Secondly, the principal proposed a plan to have extra tuition programme for Grade 12 learners starting at 07h00 in the morning and finishing at 14h00 in the afternoon. The Principal of Thando Secondary also initiated Saturday and vacation classes for Grade 12 learners. A monitoring schedule was implemented by the Principal of Thando Secondary for the Grade 12 extra tuition lessons. Another responsibility attached to the principal was the monitoring of the period registers. At Siyaphambili Secondary, the principal took responsibility for networking with high performing teachers to assist his teachers in content and lesson presentation. In order to monitor class attendance, the Principal of Thando Secondary ensured that by controlling the period register. At Thando Secondary, the principal organised that DHs were trained at the neighbouring school on curriculum management. The SMTs at Thando Secondary were assigned the task of monitoring the work of the educators, which entailed controling the roster indicating the submission dates.

Another critical strategy contributing to the turnaround at these schools was the improvement of the monitoring and evaluation in the schools as highlighted in literature review (Leithwood,

et al., 2012). The issue of monitoring and evaluation is noted as amongst others one of the key

factors which the principals considered as an area of improvement. In schools where there was poor monitoring by the school leadership, there was no control of the quality of work done by both the teacher and the leaners. Other drastic steps that were introduced to turn things around was the strict and scheduled monitoring of the teachers’ and the leaners’ work. There was

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commonality amongst all participants in terms of the importance of teaching and learning monitoring systems.

I have noted the significance of establishing and sharing a common vision for the transformed school as depicted by the Principal of Siyaphambili Secondary. Another interesting observation I have made in Siyaphambili Secondary is the notion of working on the mindset of the teachers if one wants to see fundamental change. As part of ensuring that there was basic functionality of the schools, the principals focused on the basic issues that make the school to be functional (Jensen, 2013). This is a point supported by all the principals of the participating schools; they knew that in order to stabilise teaching and learning they needed to ensure that all the basic necessities for such are in place in the schools.

At Mathafeni Secondary, the principal ensured that SMT members monitored the first periods on Mondays to check teacher attendance in classroom, whilst the deputy principal checked for loiterers in the toilets. Working on the educators mentally and developing a shared vision assisted the school a lot (Jensen, 2013). Basic functionality of the school is the key to restoring the culture of teaching and learning (Jensen, 2013). In the next section, I move on to focus on the role that the district played in supporting effective teaching and learning as part of ensuring that school improved their performance.