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With schools reopening for the third term tomorrow, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education continues upgrading the curriculum and the skills and professionalism of teachers and makes sure that all schools follow the administrative and financial rules.
One administrative upgrade is the new requirement for all schools in the public sector to display the tuition and agreed and approved levies at their administrative offices, along with the ZiG bank account details so parents are assured both that the fees and levies are the correct ones and that they can pay in local currency without any fuss or bother.
While tuition fees are set by the Ministry and are the same for each group of schools, the levies are set by the school development committees following a detailed consultation process with the parents and then have to be approved by the Ministry, which is obliged to check that a majority of interested parents have agreed to the levies and that the budget submitted is reasonable.
A similar process has to be followed for school fees at non-Government schools.
The procedures were set up in the 1980s to ensure that where a majority of parents wanted extra facilities at the schools they could raise a reasonable levy, but that there had to be ways for those who were genuinely unable to pay it in full could get a discount and in any case the Ministry was able to check that the procedures were followed and that the money was being spent on things that made sense.
While most Government schools do fall into line, there have been cases where schools have tried to cheat, pushing up tuition fees unilaterally or sneaking in a levy that has not gone through the double requirement of majority parental and Ministry approval.
There have also been cases where schools have tried to get parents to pay in US dollars rather than local currency.
The new rules for complete transparency of fees and levies has little effect on the law-abiding, since many of them found it convenient to make sure all parents knew what they had to pay and wanted the fees and levies paid into a school bank account where it was safe from robbers.
However, those schools that want to cheat now cannot cheat, especially as Ministry officers will be checking.
The Ministry has this year been upgrading teachers, making sure that they all know how the new heritage-based curricula work for their classes and what they are supposed to be adding to what they were already teaching.
Modern technologies appear to have made this a lot easier that would have been the case some years ago, and the continuing Government stress on wiring every school into the internet obviously makes it ever easier to reach teachers as well as the pupils.
Sensible administrative rules are in place already to allow schools in districts where many schools have vacancies to recruit locally. This has many advantages, especially in districts that some may consider to be a bit out of the way and which find it harder to compete with the bright lights of major cities.
Local recruitment often means that the person coming forward knows the area and has family in the area. We would go further and like to see a policy more generally adopted that in those districts where there are perennial shortages of teachers, and especially when local language skills are needed, that school leavers with the minimum required qualifications can be given preference for places in tertiary colleges and universities so long as they agree to return to their home district for set number of years on graduation.
We are in favour of the continuous professionalisation of the teaching service and of teachers and the proposed Teachers Professional Council seems a very good idea. A Bill outlining the sort of legal changes required will soon go before Parliament.
We hope that the council will be backed by continuing efforts to allow teachers to upgrade their qualifications and to have their relevant experience counted towards their professional development. But the major advantage is that an independent body will be setting out just what a professional teacher is and what qualifications and skills and ethics they possess.
This upgrades the teaching profession and allows more to be done to ensure continuous professional standards. When we look at lawyers or doctors or engineers we note that they are required to combine both academic standards and practical experience before they are considered top-end professionals.
We also note that those in the recognised professions are subject to codes of ethics and behaviour that go beyond what an employer might require, and that those breaching the professional rules and regulations face strong action from their colleagues and peers, as well as probably losing their job or facing criminal charges.
As always, we hope the children returning to class tomorrow are ready for the gruelling third term, often the toughest term as this is where they find out how well they have absorbed their lessons during the year.
For special groups, the Grade 7s and the O’ Level and A’ Level classes there are the public examinations coming up within a few weeks. Teachers and pupils have to be working together to make sure that everyone is as ready as it is possible to be.
Online Reporter