Aubyn Hill, Contributor
WHEN PETER Drucker, the recently deceased but very famously bright management thinker, coined the term 'knowledge worker' he had teachers in mind.
He was one of the finest management professors in the world for more than 30 years.
With this phrase, he was, firstly, challenging teachers to teach to the highest international standards in order to give their students effective and mobile skills.
Secondly, he was also speaking to individual teachers to ensure that their teaching skills are the best and that they give value for money every minute that they are in a classroom with pupils.
Many parents are quite disturbed, quietly, because they believe and know many teachers who are not giving value for money in the classroom.
They are upset and angry at many teachers and schools for the poor quality of teaching that is given to students, but they are constrained to keep their grievances to themselves, because they also know (not just fear) that their children will be marginalised, or worse, victimised if they complain too loudly in the school, and victimisation is certain if they complain outside the school, many of these parents believe.
Without a doubt 'value for money' in a classroom is not easy to assess and most teachers are quite opposed to any such assessment, and would declare almost any direct and systematic monitoring to be intrusive, or worse.
Yet, many of these same teachers want 'value for money' when they visit the doctor, hire a taxi, visit a government ministry or agency or buy meal at a restaurant.
'Value for money' in the classroom must mean proper preparation of lessons well ahead of time, and for those lessons to be assessed and monitored before they are presented.
I taught for a short period of time and I had to submit my detailed lessons plans (for mathematics and English) every week. Post-teaching results must also be monitored for effectiveness of the teacher, and the amount of knowledge that is gained by the children being taught by a particular teacher.
An important place where more and better monitoring must take place is in each classroom. Some of the best schools and universities around the world, and probably here in Jamaica, employ a sustained, planned and regular monitoring system that brings monitors, unobtrusively, into classrooms while teachers are teaching to assess the quality of pedagogy that is being dispensed in each classroom. Unannounced visits are also part of these educational institutions' self-assessment programme.
To be sure, there are many fine basic, primary, high school and university teachers in Jamaica. Our quite consistently excellent results in some schools across Jamaica point to the excellent work done by hundreds of outstanding teachers who have laboured in difficult circumstances and often with insufficient reward and recognition.
However, there are many teachers in too many classrooms who give much less than their best, and even some who should not be in the classroom at all.
INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES
It is an unfortunate fact that the state of our society does affect the behaviour (or lack of it) of many of our students. Single parents (most overwhelmingly mothers) who must work outside the home have little time to tutor their children as to how to behave properly.
Teachers too often have to take on the role of parents instead of being allowed to focus singly on being excellent teachers.
The pervasive and high level of violence also limits severely the quality of teaching many teachers can offer, because they fear for their personal safety. Many teachers feel they are obliged to travel the road of least, or no, offence to any student because that student could react with violence or verbal abuse.
I am aware of a case where a male student attacked a female teacher at a school in an eastern parish and broke her hand in the process. She has been attending court every month for many months without redress. The grandparent supports the abusive child.
Many parents have been far too ready to offer unfair physical and other abuse to teachers who would seek to teach to high standards and keep to a modicum of traditional discipline. The dearth of good teaching materials and facilities is another challenge many teachers have to face on a daily basis.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
An insidious and potentially deadly virus has been growing in many of our classrooms even in some of our best ones.
It is the cash teachers earn from giving extra classes to many of the students they teach in their regular classes. In the business environment, many practitioners and regulators would label this practice by teachers as a classic and chronic case of 'conflict of interest'.
The parents who have been speaking to me cite this practice as a corrupting influence on many teachers, and on the quality of teaching they give to their students.
Many parents feel coerced into paying for extra classes and because they, rightly, perceive that in a globalised world that puts such a high premium on the 'knowledge worker', they are obliged to do all they can to give their children the best education they can afford.
Indeed, many parents cannot really afford these extra classes put on by many of their children's regular teachers, but they place themselves into debt to give their children the best chances to pass the required exams. A tragic twist to this virus is the reality that some parents use the extra classes as a post-school day-care centre.
So, what is the basis for this product known as extra classes and which has mushroomed at the hands of and from the heads of teachers?
Is it a response to market demand, looseness in school administration, underpaid teachers, inattentive and poor student learners, or greed?
Different people will proffer different answers and each may be a contributing factor. The fact is that it is a costly item in many parents' tight budgets.
However, as bad as the budget pinch may be, many believe that this practice is an important source of mediocre teaching in our classrooms. Parents report that their children tell them that some teachers hardly teach while in the classroom, but encourage these same students to take extra classes after school.
Parents resent the fact that they cannot even complain about the practice. I had my office call a well-known business that teaches math and is listed in the white pages of the telephone directory.
It offers math to prepare students who are at the foundation level to the advanced level geared to exam dates in January or June.
This company offers lessons for three quarters of the year and a total teaching time of 30 hours each quarter. The total cost for each quarter of instructions (for example from January to March) is $5,000 at a cost of about $167 per hour. If we bear in mind that the full school year at some high schools costs about $10,000 to $12,000, the additional burden on a parent for this kind of extra tutelage to his or her child is very high and can be burdensome.
Many parents see this need to pay for this kind of expensive outside teaching as a direct reflection on the inadequate quality of teaching inside the classroom.
THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL
School principals have to act as the chief executive officer of the organisation and must, therefore, put in place plans that will reduce the incidence of inherent conflict of interest that many teachers face or in which they knowingly engage. Principals must address the abuse that parents perceive when teachers fail to teach well in the classroom and then demand additional cash for extra classes from students who are under pressure to pass exams.
The Ministry of Education will very likely have to take a look at this practice that brings teachers into conflict with their substantive job of teaching within the classroom during normal school hours, as well as the issue of pay that may be one of the factors driving many teachers to seek additional income.
The Jamaica Teachers' Asso-ciation needs to look at the practice and inform its members of the inherent conflict of interest and the negative press that many of the teachers in the association have earned, even when parents cannot speak openly about it.
Finally, individual teachers have to deal with the ethical and even moral issue of taking money from parents to teach students, in non-school hours, lessons that these same students should be taught during normal school hours and for which teachers are paid regular salaries to teach.
Aubyn Hill is the CEO of Corporate Strategies Ltd., a restructuring and financial advisory firm. Respond to: writerhill@gmail.com.
