E.L. Africa Magazine | December 2022

DECEMBER 2022 VOL.3, NO.11

E.L. SCHOOL DISTRICT LEADERSHIP PROFESSIONAL LEARNING EVENT PG. 21

EDUCATIONAL LEADER AFRICA

CULTIVATING INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERS FOR SUSTAINABLE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES PG. 23 TECHNOLOGY INSTRUCTIONAL FACILITATORS FOR EVERY SCHOOL TO SUPPORT TEACHERS PG. 11

$2.99 USD

THE NEED FOR SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS IN SUBSAHARAN AFRICAN SCHOOLS PG. 13

Professional Development for School Leaders & Teachers Education Leadership Consulting Group (ELCG) has the tools and language to transform leaders. We work with organizations, school leaders and teachers to develop scalable tools and strategies.

By signing up to participate in professional development, you or your team will receive targeted training from experts through our customized virtual workshops. You will be able to add new and/or refined bestpractices tools to your professional toolbox!

DOES YOUR ORGNIZATION NEED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP?

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

CONTACT US FOR YOUR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS

Email elafricamagazine@gmail.com with subject line: "Professional Development Inquiry"

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EDUCATIONAL LEADER AFRICA

TABLE OF

CONTENTS 11 12

THE ROLE OF IFTS: TECHNOLOGY INSTRUCTIONAL FACILITATORS FOR EVERY SCHOOL TO SUPPORT TEACHERS DIGITAL LITERACY AND TECHNOLOGY

30 31

PRINCI-POLL

PRINCIPALLY SPEAKING

13

THE NEED FOR SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN SCHOOLS

33

TECHNICAL SKILLS ACQUISITION IN ACTION AT MOTHER KEVIN COLLEGEMABIRA IN UGANDA

19

LEADING FROM THE FRONT: FACT OR FALLACY

35

STUDENT DISCIPLINE: TIP OF AN ICEBERG

21

SCHOOL DISTRICT LEADERSHIP CONVERSATION

37

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

23

CULTIVATING INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERS FOR SUSTAINABLE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES

40

IN THE NEWS

27

NATIONAL ACTION FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN ZAMBIA (NAQEZ)

43

HEALTH & WELLNESS: GET STARTED TOWARDS A HAPPIER, HEALTHIER YOU!

E.L. Africa is a quarterly publication that focuses on school leaders' real needs, offering them practical and technical strategies for improving schools in a constantly evolving environment. Articles published in E.L. Africa are edited for style, content and space prior to publication. Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent E.L. Africa positions. Endorsement by E.L. Africa of products and services advertised is not implied or expressed.

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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ABOUT E.L. AFRICA MAGAZINE Educational Leader (E.L.) Africa magazine provides in-depth information about the most critical issues facing education leaders today in the Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Published four times a year, each issue has a specific focus area and the articles are written by education experts and practitioners.

The E.L. Africa Magazine gives school principals/headmasters the resources, strategies, and inspiration required to prepare students for success. The magazine stirs school administrators toward openly discussing skills and strategies to improve schools and advance learning. It empowers these administrators to build an improved education system that is exceptional, independent and capable of self-sustaining with the correct mindset, by collaboratively sharing their skills. It also highlights their commitments and serves as an African solution to African problems.

Therefore, the E.L. Africa is a paradigm shift, viewing the change in the education systems from the lens of experts and the school principals that implement/execute the education policies in the schools.

We embarked on this game-changing project as an inspiration to other educators to improve the education system in SSA. When you share your knowledge, skills and celebrate others without being apologetic, you feel fulfilled. It’s so important.

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

EDITORIAL & DESIGN WRITERS Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr.

Temitope Mustapha - Nigeria Chris Onwuka - Nigeria Sanvee Elmut Pinto - Togo Pascal T. Soklou - Togo

CONTRIBUTORS

Dr. Andi Rounsley Dr. Frances Ufondu Dr. George Wah Williams Dr. Thokolosi John Tshabalala Mr. Paul Sserunjongi Mr. Aaron Chansa Mr. T.G Latitlok

CREATIVE DESIGNER Ms. Chinenye Omile

Educational Leadership Africa Magazine (ISSN 2693-2806) is published quarterly in March, June, September, December by Educational Leadership Consultant Group(ELCG) in Virginia, USA. ELCG is an organization focused on training and development of education leaders. The EL Africa magazine, a component of ELCG, is the voice for principals, assistant principals, and other school leaders across Sub- Saharan Africa. The statements, opinions, and advertisements expressed herein are those of individual authors and companies and do not necessarily represent the views of EL Africa magazine or the ELCG. Article Submission: Submission on topics relevant to school leadership are requested. Email ideas and articles to elafricamagazine@gmail.com.

E.L.

EDUCATIONAL LEADER AFRICA

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHERS Ada Omile Frances Ufondu E. L. AFRICA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Richard Buffington - President Steven Dike Wilhelmina McKinney Angela Agboli-Esedebe Evelyn Mamman Francis Onukwuli Eugene Otuonye Frank Okeke James Onyait Mary Young

E.L. Africa magazine’s look at the use of trained substitute teachers in classrooms across the SubSaharan Africa from our principoll (pg. 30). Then check out what headteachers and principals are saying about substitute teachers on the Principally Speaking section (pg. 31). See the need for trained substitute teacher for classrooms (pg. 13).

Learn about the roles of the instructional facilitators of technology in the classrooms (pg.

11). Read about Cultivating Instructional Leadership (pg. 23) and how the watchdog for quality education in Zambia is pulling strings (pg.

27).

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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EXECUTIVE PUBLISHERS DR. ADA OMILE

Dr. Omile earned her doctorate degree in Educational Leadership/Supervision K-12, from Argosy University, Washington D.C., Post Master's Certificate in Educational Leadership & Administration from George Washington University, Master of Science in Computer & Information Systems , Master of Arts in Learning Disabilities, both from Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta Georgia. She has over 28 years of experience in Education and Leadership.

Her doctoral research in 2011 was focused on providing professional learning to school principals in Anambra State, Nigeria. The result of the research showed a glaring gap in practice. To address the gap, she started the Education Leadership Consultant Group (ELCG), a Non-profit organization that provides professional learning on effective schools to school principals and directors of private proprietors of schools in Africa. Recently, she concluded that we need to create a forum to reach more school principals throughout the Sub-Saharan Africa, hence this E.L. Africa magazine.

DR. FRANCES UFONDU

Dr. Ufondu earned her Doctorate of Education in Organizational Leadership from University of LaVerne, California. She earned a California Professional Administrative Services Credential; a Clear Multiple Subject Teaching Credential; a Master’s of Arts in Education Administration from University of Benin, Nigeria and a Bachelors of Science in Vocational Home Economics Education from University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

In addition, she received a Professional Certificate in Accounting for Governmental and Nonprofit Organizations; a Chief Business Officer (CBO) certification through California Association of School Business Officials Partner Training Program; Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Certification in Curriculum and Instruction Leadership and Leadership Coaching.

Dr. Omile and Dr. Ufondu attended the same high school and college in Nigeria and have dedicated their career and life’s work to improving leadership capacity for educational leaders in the hopes of positively improving learning for our students. This E.L. Africa Magazine is designed to give educational leaders the tools to enhance and empower their teachers as they collaborate to improve teaching and learning for students.

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

Her dissertation in 2005 was focused on an in-depth research of skills required by principals to effectively implement the Public School Accountability Act in California. The findings indicated that principals perceived skills in visionary leadership as very important. The study also empowered staff members and students to reach high levels of performance; creating and communicating a school vision and aligning financial, human and material resources with the vision; student assessment, gathering, analyzing, and using data to inform decision making; demonstrating and understanding of curricular alignment to ensure improved performance and designing, evaluating, and refining curricular remediation programs.

We Are Your Partners for School Improvement We will transform your professional learning, increase educator capacity, and improve student achievement.

We focus on Better Leadership, Better Teaching, & Improved School Systems.

ELCG has supported leaders at all levels to transform their systems into true learning systems, where all educators engage in a measurable and scalable cycle of improvement. Our high-impact professional services help systems set an attainable vision for an effective and equitable system of professional learning that leads to improved leader, educator, and student outcomes.

We provide our partners with tools to transform professional learning, increase educator capacity, and improve student achievement. Through our face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid learning experiences, we help ensure your professional learning is standards-driven, job-embedded, and focused on improved instruction and better results for all students.

We help maximize the impact of professional learning in schools, districts, states, and organizations by: Building the capacity of central office leaders to set a vision for equity and excellence and increase the effectiveness in leading change.

Transforming school leadership by developing principals and aspiring principals with deep understanding and skills in leading learning and creating cultures of collective responsibility.

Empowering coaches and mentor teachers with the skills to support beginning and veteran teachers to meet their classroom challenges.

Ensuring that all teacher learning teams engage in a cycle of continuous improvement focused on meeting their students’ unique learning needs.

Assessing the impact of professional learning in your school or system and measure its alignment to the Standards for Professional Learning.

Contact us: elcgtraining@gmail.com or elafricamagazine@gmail.com

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE Recently, I have had to brace myself and speak truthfully during my conversations with education leaders wanting to improve their schools.

It is going to be hard to change the image of tawdry public schools in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), unless the leaders channel money for change and education officials really invest and use that money for what it’s meant for.

Efforts to turn around low-performing schools in some SSA countries has remained a persistent challenge, this is because the factors that contribute to low performance are multifaceted.

Effective and sustainable solutions must address not only a wide array of systemic issues, including funding from the state but must also focus on specific practices within individual schools.

We are trying our very best to help improve schools through our education symposiums, professional developments and conversations with education leaders, and one on one district improvement plan process. Our goal is that through professional development sessions, we can enhance your effectiveness.

At our conversation event in November with district and regional education leaders, we used the opportunity to create connections between these leaders from different countries in the SSA. I am awed by their commitments to improving their school systems. While enjoying the enthusiasm of these educational leaders, I reflected on our history and growth. How we have continued to increase the number of our readers, from country to country. I continued to appreciate the opportunity to let more than 30,000 quarterly readers know how much we value them.

Let’s make your 2023 school year a year to focus on improvement plans, Let’s be more discerning on the improvement projects, get team members involved in choosing your one – three years goal/goals, use available data, and monitor your progress. I know for sure that: if SSA States, regions, municipal, districts or zonal education agencies align resources, structures, increase budgets for schools, and support principals or headteachers, change will happen in schools.

Don’t underestimate your power as a District or School leader. You are an agent of change.

Ada Omile Ada Omile Executive Director E.L. Africa Magazine

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

CONTRIBUTE TO E.L. AFRICA MAGAZINE! If you’re an expert in education, please share your knowledge and experience with your fellow school leaders in E.L. Africa magazine. Write about one of the following themes or submit an article on another topic of interest to principals, assistant principals, or aspiring principals.

Themes for Next issue Mental/Emotional health of students Teacher Retention School Improvement plans.

E.L. Africa is YOUR magazine—help make it an even more valuable resource by writing an article or passing these themes on to a colleague who has a great program or unique perspective.

Content Manuscripts should explore one theme or other topics of professional interest to secondary school principals.

Manuscripts are evaluated by ELCG/E.L. Africa magazine staff members and are judged on their relevance, interest to principals, timeliness, originality, readability, and credibility. E.L. Africa magazine seeks articles that: Describe best practices and exemplary programs objectively and include evidence of success as well as a discussion of problems Explain how principals can act on the information Include advice, resources, and examples Offer opinions on some topic of professional interest to principals Requirements Manuscripts should be no more than 2,000 words, including references, but may include additional supplemental material.

Successful manuscripts are written in a tone and style appropriate to a magazine; are well-organized; clearly establish the purpose of the article; use specific examples —it is best to show, and adhere to the rules of grammar.

How to Submit Please send your manuscript to elafricamagazine@gmail.com and include: The manuscript prepared in MS Word.

A cover letter that indicates your intention to submit the manuscript to E.L. Africa magazine and stipulates whether the manuscript has been submitted elsewhere.

Contact information for each author: school and title, telephone number, and e-mail address.

A two-sentence author biography. The first sentence should include a current title, school and e-mail address; the condition sentence should highlight key accomplishments or reinforce your authority in discussing the topic.

Photographs If you’d like to send photos to accompany your article, please attach the JPEG files to an email and send them to elcgtraining@yahoo.com. If no photos are available, E.L. Africa will select file or stock art to enhance the article.

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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E.L. AFRICA

ADVISORY BOARD 1

Mr. Richard Buffington (Ricky) - Board Chair

Program analyst with MAG Aerospace providing logistic and program support for soldiers at Fort Belvoir VA. Obtained a master’s degree in Business Management from California Coast University.

A retired Marine veteran with 30 years of serving the military community. An active member of the Saratoga Hunt Homeowner Association for 14 years as the President or Vice President. Mr. Buffington is also an annual volunteer at the First Home Alliance non-profit organization and several First Mount Zion church organizations.

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Dr. Steve Dike

Has 38 years of executive experience with expertise in strategic planning, public policies, market

analysis, negotiations, project management, program evaluation, organizational restructuring and repositioning, process redesign and re-engineering and private-public partnerships. Chairman of the Nigerian Educational Research & Development council. He is on the board of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Centenary City Plc, & Nigerian Infrastructure Backbone Foundation. He holds an earned Ph.D. in Economics, MBA in Finance, M.S. in Resource Management, M.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Chemistry from West Virginia University. He was an Adjunct Professor of finance and management.

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Dr. Wilhemina Hall McKinney

An International Educator for thirty-five years. She has trained and or mentored students, teachers, principals, superintendents, and parents at all education levels. She started her career as a classroom teacher and ended at the level of Instructional Systems Specialist in the areas of professional development, assessment, and partnerships. She is presently an Educational Consultant.

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Dr. Eugene Otuonye

Currently a high school assistant principal and has been an educator for over 20 years in California, United States, working as an elementary and middle school teacher, and high school Dean of

Students. He holds two master’s degrees in Cross-Cultural Education and Educational Administration from The National University La Jolla, California. His doctoral degree was in Leadership and Organizational Management. He has extensive knowledge of curriculum and instruction, student learning, WASC, master schedule, state, and district testing. His focus currently in his position is strengthening the English Learner Literacy rate, Positive Behavior Intervention & Support and Community Engagement.

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5 Mr. James Lambert Onyait Current principal of Nebbi Town Secondary School in the Nebbi Municipal, West Nile and Headteacher of Raymond Vocational Secondary School in Mubende Uganda. Mr. Onyait also consults with organizations in Uganda for research and development. He was the director of studies at the St. Kizito Secondary school Bugolobi in Kampala. He has devoted many years in education supporting technical skills acquisition for students. He has an MBA and BA degrees in Education and holds a certificate in Counseling and Guidance services from Makerere University.

6 Prof. Francis O. Onukwuli

Retired mathematician and computer scientist for 36 years. He served as a Lecturer & Coordinator Information and Computer Science at Spelman College, Assistant Professor of Computer Science & Math, Manager Computer & Information Sciences Laboratories, Morris Brown College, Atlanta, and Author microcomputer materials for calculus students. He has Ed.D in Educational Leadership & Administration, Post-Doctoral studies in Mathematics/Computer Science at Kennedy-Western University, Boise, Idaho, MS in Computer Science (Mathematical Computing/Network Analysis), B.S. Honors in Mathematics

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and Minor in Physics.

Dr. Angela Agboli Esedebe Campus President at Stratford University’s Alexandria campus, worked at Strayer University for 13 years and served in various capacities including full-time faculty, Associate Dean for Arts and Sciences and Campus Dean. Holds a bachelor's degree in mass communications and a master's degree in international law and diplomacy, and a Ph.D. from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She also holds another master's in business administration with a concentration in management from Strayer University in December 2012. She received the prestigious Strayer University Faculty Award of Excellence at the 120th Annual Commencement Ceremonies in Norfolk, Virginia October 27th, 2012.

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Dr. Evelyn Mamman

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction at South Brunswick school District in New Jersey. She has been an educator for twenty-one years, a reflective practitioner who leads with a passion for teaching and learning. Has worked with students of varying ages, backgrounds, and abilities. She has also held various positions: adjunct professor, teacher, literacy coach, literacy consultant, supervisor, and Director of Title I and Supplemental Education programs. She has a Doctoral Degree in Arts and Letters, a M.Ed in English Education, and a B.A in English Education. Her goal is to educate, engage, and empower those she serves.

9 Dr. Mary L. Young A former school Superintendent, author, speaker, certified coach, and entrepreneur with almost 30 years of experience in public and higher education.

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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THE ROLE OF IFTs

Technology Instructional Facilitators for Every School to Support Teachers By: Andi Rounsley, an Instructional Facilitator, Technology (IFT)

T

he Instructional Facilitator, Technology (IFT) promotes the thoughtful use of technology by teachers and students with the goal of having an impact on student achievement. Changing the way teachers engage students in the learning process is crucial to the effective use of technology and ultimately to the development of a life-long habit and desire for learning. To support teachers in this endeavor, each school has an Instructional Facilitator, Technology (IFT) and one or more Digital Experience Specialists (DES) who, working as a team with others, collaborate with teachers to develop engaging lessons and responsible use of technology.

The IFT is an experienced teacher who has either completed or is in the process of completing a masters degree. The IFT manages the technology resources in the school, provides workshops and just-in-time training, models effective strategies for teachers, and teams with teachers as they plan and adopt new tools and strategies.

The IFT also consults with teachers individually to meet specific classroom needs and individual initiatives.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE IFT The IFT works directly with staff through the coaching cycle (planning, modeling, and reflecting), to effectively meet teaching and learning needs. IFTs serve as school facilitators who collaborate on planning and facilitate professional learning opportunities in their schools to provide deeper learning through technology enabled experiences for students.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES Assists in the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of instructional technologies and professional learning opportunities; plans and conducts collaborative model lessons that demonstrate the integration of instructional technology; provides assistance and support to all instructional programs within the school system.

Is an active part of the school and County wide team of IFTs who collaborates with the Principal, the Director of Instructional Programs, the Supervisors of Educational Technology, and the Instructional Technology Specialist to create and implement professional learning related to technology-enabled pedagogy; serves as a facilitator on the school's instructional technology team to meet school and systems goals.

Facilitates resource evaluation; facilitates the effective instructional use of available hardware and software and determines appropriate curriculum relevance.

Maintains school website, social media accounts, jumbotron announcement scroller, and internal instructional website for faculty and staff.

Works with the principal and admissions staff to promote school programs and activities through video production and photography.

Delivers and tracks professional development and assists teachers in maintaining a professional portfolio for license renewal.

The Instructional Facilitator, Technology reports directly to the school Principal and the Director of Instructional Programs and has a working relationship with the Supervisor of Educational Technology and the Instructional Technology Specialist. The IFT creates the Internal Instructional Website for Faculty and Staff School Website Social Media Accounts School Video Productions Virtual Tours Website Announcement Scroller

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

DIGITAL LITERACY & TECHNOLOGY INSTRUCTION

D

igital Literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills. Like information literacy, digital literacy requires skills in locating and using information and in critical thinking. Beyond that, however, digital literacy involves knowing digital tools and using them in communicative, collaborative ways through social engagement.

This skill set is increasingly becoming essential. Today's graduates from secondary schools require the abilities to survive, learn, and work in a society where communication and access to information is increasingly conducted through the internet, social media, and mobile applications.

In developed countries, today’s students have moved past the need for separate computer literacy classes. He or she now requires a broader education in digital and media literacy. That is because today’s generation of young people are fluent in the use of social media, apps, and devices from as early as kindergarten. However, this does not negate the need for more in-depth and practical teaching in subjects like coding and the Microsoft Office Suite of programs (especially Word and Excel). Although it is easy to assume that students already grasp certain technological concepts and abilities, educators must still incorporate these training into their daily instruction.

Limiting instruction to technical skills will not give students all the tools they need for success in the digital and mediadriven world. To have an impact on the growth and development of students, instruction should accomplish more than just swapping technology for traditional curriculum. Kids will rebuff learning if technology is simply added to a lesson plan or lecture.

INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY There are many technical tools available to help teachers deliver quality instruction and manage communications between the teacher, parent, and student. Teachers now use these platforms to create and upload lessons, videos, and fun assignments that align with the work students are currently doing in their classrooms.

When teachers have crafted a digital tool kit that is customizable for each student's needs, they create richer and more meaningful learning experiences. Students take ownership of their work, and they learn better when technology is not perceived as the desired outcome. Instead, technology is seen as a means for reaching a goal. For this to be successful, the tools and platforms being used must be intuitive and compatible with the internet infrastructure at schools and inside a student’s home. Teachers, students, and parents will need to take active roles in implementing the necessary steps to reach digital literacy and making sure that all technology tools are accessible and easily understood.

Beyond software programs and platforms, there are many resources for supporting teachers in bringing a digital literacy focus to their classrooms. Some of these platforms allow the students to create projects and link it to their online platform, connected and interactive with other students. This collaboration gives deeper meaning to the project and greatly increases the likelihood of students paying attention, retaining information, and increasing their digital literacy skills.

While approaches to digital literacy are impacted by factors such as access to technology, teacher’s comfort level with technical solutions, and school funding, technology and digital literacy integration in the classroom is still a necessity.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and “Big Tech” careers are in demand and projected to increase over the next ten years. These jobs require applicants to have standard sets of tech skills. Building comfort and fluency with technology could even begin in early childhood classrooms. This atmosphere will serve students academically and socially as they move into professional careers utilizing the same collaborative mindsets learned in technology-based classrooms.

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THE NEED FOR SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN SCHOOLS By: Dr. Frances Ufondu, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Palmdale School District, California, CoFounder and Editor for E.L. Africa Magazine.

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

THE NEED FOR SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN SCHOOLS

A

lthough substitute teachers serve an essential role in the education system, they’re often underappreciated, underpaid and even ignored. Educator absenteeism in SubSaharan African schools is very high, this threatens the right to education of many learners, and the use of substitute educators can mitigate that threat. All employees are entitled to take leave. Time to Teach survey from Western and Central Africa indicates that as much as 14.7 percent of surveyed teachers reported being absent from school (including absence for unavoidable reasons such as being unwell and pre-service training) on a regular basis (i.e., at least once a week). Among participating countries, the highest rates of school absences were reported in Guinea (31.7 per cent) and Guinea Bissau (26 per cent) and the lowest in Togo (2.3 per cent) and Côte d’Ivoire (3.6 per cent). Substitute teachers serve as educational bridges when regular classroom teachers are absent.

It is important for school districts to employ highly qualified individuals to fulfill the critical role of substitute teachers. Flexibility and adaptability are probably the two most important characteristics that substitute teachers must possess. They must be flexible because they are often not called until the morning of the day they are needed. Most of the schools in sub-Saharan Africa do not utilize substitute teachers and for the countries that have substitute teachers, there is a shortage of substitute educators; one of the main reasons being low pay. In South Africa, there is a huge challenge to draw qualified substitute educators to under achieving schools, and to improve the fairness of allocating quality substitute educators. Many countries have problems in finding substitute educators.

Substitute teachers are very important to the field of education due to some of the following reasons: Providing Consistent Education: A substitute teacher ensures that each student receives quality instruction while their formal teacher is away. Substitute teaching is no longer about popping in a movie but continuing the lesson plan from where the teacher left off.

Without a substitute teacher, students could fall behind in a particular lesson or subject.

Lightening the Workload for Teachers: Most full-time teachers have a lunch hour that they use for planning lessons and grading papers. When a substitute teacher can’t be found, schools will often ask full-time teachers to give up their planning hour in order to fill in. This has a negative effect on the teacher’s ability to plan his/her class effectively, ultimately affecting the student as well.

Encouraging Careers in Education: Many substitutes enjoy the field so much, they decide to pursue education full time. Many substitutes are inspired to go back to school for a teaching degree or to apply towards other full-time careers in the field of education.

The newly released projections from UNESCO in June of 2022 revealed that more and smarter investment in teachers and teaching is needed to enable Africa’s children and youth to access quality education. According to new calculations, to reach education goals by 2030, sub-Saharan Africa will need to recruit 15 million teachers.

The persistent teacher gap in sub-Saharan Africa is jeopardizing education recovery. The Teacher Task Force is issuing a call for greater investment in teachers and teaching to ensure that all learners have access to a qualified and supported teacher by 2030. The research recommends that governments and partners: Develop holistic teacher policies and cost them properly, especially in the countries with the most severe shortages. These policies will allow countries to better understand where teachers are needed the most, in particular for disadvantaged areas, as well as to identify the most cost-effective interventions and the policy trade-offs required.

Increase domestic resources available for education and ensure that teachers are paid a living wage.

Domestic education budgets need to be increased or maintained to ensure they reach the internationally agreed benchmark of national education expenditure of at least 15%–20% of GDP. Increase international funding to education with a stronger focus on teachers and teaching, in particular initial and continued professional development.

Improve teacher preparation, support and working conditions to reduce attrition and ensure, in particular, that young teachers remain in the profession. Actions must urgently be taken to protect teachers, whether from attacks on schools or from COVID-19.

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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THE NEED FOR SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN SCHOOLS

Collect more national and internationally comparable data, if better and sounder educational financing and teachers’ planning is to be carried out, and to ensure that the investments made have their desired results.

The COVID-19 crisis spotlighted the importance of teachers, but also the difficult working conditions in which many are teaching. Evidence points to heavy workloads and high levels of burn-out, as teachers have been asked to support communities and ensure learning continuity with little or no preparation or support. Countries and the international community are now looking towards the recovery of education systems, with ambitious plans for remedial learning to compensate for learning losses, which means that teacher support and preparation will be more crucial than ever. But without further investments in teacher professional development, governance and accountability, it is unlikely that these ambitions will be realized. In addition, we always seem to forget that the current teaching force need to be supported and constantly encouraged to do their daily duties. In every profession, there is the need to provide personal and sick times to employees. The question to ask ourselves is, how do we provide continuity of instruction in the classroom when a teacher is out sick or has to take personal necessity time from work? Resources are needed to recruit large numbers of new teachers, as well as to retain both teachers entering schools for the first time and those already teaching.

A UNICEF study in November of 2020 unveiled challenges affecting teacher attendance in sub-Saharan Africa and evidence was provided to help education systems better support teacher motivation, accountability and conditions.

At a regional online workshop of national and international education stakeholders organized in Nairobi, Kenya; Time to Teach: Teacher attendance and time on task in Eastern and Southern Africa, they provided insights into the drivers of primary school teacher absenteeism, a major obstacle in efforts to address the learning crisis in children of low- and middle-income countries around the world. Produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, the report synthesizes findings from eight subSaharan countries with a focus on the many complex factors that affect teacher time on task across the region.

The study provides robust evidence on the challenges faced by teachers and how to improve policies on teacher working conditions, accountability and motivation.

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

Reduced teacher time on task is considered one of the greatest challenges toward inclusive and quality education. Matt Brossard, Chief education researcher at UNICEF Innocenti said that “Even before COVID-19, the world was facing a learning crisis. Half of 10-year-olds in low and middle-income countries couldn’t read and understand a simple text and in sub-Saharan Africa the issue is even more acute with 87 percent of children in that situation,” The research identified promising practices for supporting teachers and improving policies for a more motivated and effective teaching workforce, one of the most important factors for addressing the learning crisis.

Countries in Eastern and Southern Africa have invested heavily in teacher development and support. Yet, teacher absenteeism is still prevalent in the region.

The study moves beyond the traditional understanding of teacher absenteeism and provides critical insights into the factors that underpin the multiple forms of teacher absenteeism and time on task. It also examines how factors vary across countries, school types, gender of teacher and other teacher characteristics. Despite high levels of teacher absenteeism, the study shows that teachers are generally committed to their job. However, what is missing or what was not discussed in the study was the use of substitute teachers during teacher absence.

One of the most pressing challenges school districts in the United States are facing this year is having enough substitute teachers to cover classrooms. Most states are already grappling with teacher shortages in areas such as science, math and special education. Some districts have it better than others, relying on a pool of either veteran or permanent substitutes to fill in. Some districts, however, may not have as deep a pool of regular subs and will have to rely heavily on short-term substitutes to cover gaps.

There are certain times of the year, as with any other district, during flu season, when it gets close to a holiday, when they really push the system to the limit as it relates to substitute teachers. Avoiding those roadblocks and being nimble will be key to keeping and growing the subs pool in districts. School districts look at very unexpected pools of talent that they haven’t considered. The pandemic has exacerbated this conversation: that we need to look at how we can expand the credentials of very qualified individuals to become teachers. School leaders and others in the education field offered 5 strategies on maintaining and growing pools of subs in an article written by Chris Burt in District Administration, August 19, 2020:

THE NEED FOR SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN SCHOOLS

Call on nontraditional instructors. When you look at the folks that are currently unemployed, who have been displaced, there are enormously talented people that would probably love to take a substitute teacher job. Maybe somebody who has been in a STEM career that has been working in a laboratory that might have gotten furloughed or lost their position due to reduction would make a great teacher in the middle school to teach a STEM class in a discipline like physical science, or biology. If they have the minimum requirements to be a substitute teacher within that state, they should be considered. What I love about that is that some people would be engaged to pursue the teaching profession with an alternative credentialing degree on top of their four-year degree.

Also, it brings in real-life applications of somebody who has been doing the career for our students.

Look beyond your campus and train them up: If you have a university that is close to you, it will be to your advantage to work with them because they have teachers – young folks, virtually especially – that would be able to support and help. Taking a different approach is also crucial, substitute teachers in some districts were paid some days to come in and be part of the professional development with regular teachers so that they know exactly what they need to do to be able to teach, and they supported those in nontraditional roles such as instructional assistants or substitutes to pursue the courses that they need for a bachelor’s degree in teacher certification while also working full time.

Consider college students: Many college students are electing to take gap years, they’re looking to maybe add some income, or feeling maybe they’d like to give back to their local school districts, or even looking at folks that are going to be more seasonal, maybe a college student that’s off for the semester or they’re seasonal.

Listen to subs and praise them: They need to be part of your staff; make them feel like a part of the team.

Make sure they’re provided with the resources they need like a lesson plan and class list, rather than come in blind and not be able to engage the classroom.

Some subs do have schools that they enjoy working out of because the school makes them feel like a part of that family. It’s the schools that treat them more like a commodity that they’re not happy with.

When all else fails, do what you have to do: Sometimes, staffing is just going to be short. Some schools consider leveraging existing staff to serve as a part of the school-based subs team to cover classes, such as coaches and facilitators, counselors, interventionists, and librarians, when they typically may have a planning time or have some time that they can utilize differently and have more flexibility. One of the top goals in my district is retention and recruitment of talent. Like school districts across the state, really across the country, we are facing a teacher shortage crisis right now. So we’ve developed a multi-prong strategy, that among other things, includes paying our substitutes more than the surrounding districts to entice those individuals to fill in the gaps when we need them.

In contrast, schools in Sub-Saharan Africa lack policies regarding their substitute educators, which can lead to hindrances in the utilization of substitute educators. All schools have difficulty in finding substitute educators especially in Mathematics and Physical Science. The principals are also mainly responsible for the planning of the utilization of substitute educators and the most critical factor that hampers the appointment of appropriate substitute educators at schools is determined to be the availability of funds. Some schools are not able to pay competitive salaries to substitute educators, although they attempt to remunerate them on the same scale as permanent educators. Due to the fact of better remuneration at other schools, quality substitute educators are often lost. The majority of substitute educators are females who were in the teaching profession but left due to family reasons or because they did not want to commit to a specific school. The key findings from the UNICEF study as it relates to teachers’ attendance and time on task includes: On average 15.5 to 17.8 percent of teachers in the countries surveyed reported being absent from school or unable to deliver instruction while in school; Teacher absenteeism is higher in rural areas than in urban/peri-urban areas and higher in public schools than in private schools; ‘Moonlighting’ teachers, who hold multiple jobs, are more likely to report being absent compared with teachers who receive income exclusively from the teaching profession, as are volunteer teachers compared with non-volunteer teachers;

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THE NEED FOR SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN SCHOOLS

Across all countries, health, weather and family reasons were the most frequent reasons given by teachers for explaining the different forms of absence; Teachers who perceive their head teacher as actively discouraging absenteeism report being more often at school and spending more time on task; Stronger parental and community engagement in teacher monitoring is also associated with improved teacher attendance; Teachers who receive their salary on time and with relative ease report lower rates of absenteeism than teachers who face delays and difficulties in collecting their pay.

The Time to Teach study in The Eastern and Southern Africa covers Comoros, Kenya, Mozambique, Puntland (State of Somalia), Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania (mainland and Zanzibar) and Uganda. Findings are based on data from 180 public and private schools, 3,498 teachers and school administrators and 1,107 students. The research used a mixed methods approach, gathering quantitative and qualitative data from interviews, focus group discussions, a teacher survey and structured observations. A region-wide synthesis report was produced along with nine country level reports. “The overarching objective of the Time to Teach study is to enable governments to identify gaps and bottlenecks in improving teacher time on task,” said Despina Karamperidou, lead author of the report. “The persistent focus of the study on the multiple factors affecting teacher attendance, will help mobilize policymakers, citizens, donors and other stakeholders to take the necessary steps to improve teacher working conditions, accountability and motivation, and thereby improve learning outcomes.” The main policy recommendations from the study includes: Strengthen inter-sectoral collaboration to address factors beyond the education system, in particular health and infrastructure; Ensure that head teachers are trained in management and leadership including monitoring and oversight, curriculum implementation and supervision; Boost parental and community involvement to include a monitoring role and strengthening of their representation on school councils and management boards.

Remove obstacles to receiving pay including increased pay points in remote areas and establishing a Rota system to ensure schools continue to function at pay collection time.

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Ensure that teacher training has a strong practical component and is not organized in a way that leaves students without a teacher or a substitute teacher.

Make distribution of teachers across schools more equitable including incentive strategies to make postings in rural and hardship areas more attractive.

The goal of writing this extensive article on needs for substitute teachers in sub-Saharan African schools is for district leaders to reflect on the importance of using subs during teacher absences. Recommendations for the management of substitute educators include the design and implementation of a compulsory, comprehensive, and focused school policy on the hiring and management of substitute educators. More support from the district level leaders would benefit schools when they need a substitute educator, perhaps even by adjusting their own policy.

Substitute educators that are regularly utilized at a school must be actively involved in professional development, especially regarding strategies for instructional delivery.

Schools need to create strategies to give feedback to substitute educators when they have completed their day.

Finally, the creation of a proficient database of all educators who desire to do substitute teaching may prove to be quite useful at the district office level and district leaders also need to prioritize creating substitute teacher policies that support principals in recruiting and managing their substitute teacher pool.

References: Játiva, X., Karamperidou, D., Mills, M., Vindrola, S., Wedajo,H., Dsouza, A., and Bergmann,J., Time to Teach – Teacher attendance and time on task in West and Central Africa, UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, Florence, 2022.

Karamperidou, D., Brossard, M., Peirolo, S., and Richardson, D. Time to Teach – Teacher attendance and time on task in Eastern and Southern Africa, UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, Florence, 2020.

The advocacy brief, Closing the gap – Ensuring there are enough qualified and supported teachers in sub-Saharan Africa, is published by The International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, hosted by UNESCO, 21 April 2022

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LEADING FROM THE FRONT: FACT OR FALLACY BY: DR.THOKOLOSI JOHN TSHABALALA, LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE, SOUTH AFRICA

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esearch and scholarship worldwide continue to provide a better understanding of what leadership is and should be. Quite often we hear people talk about the demise of organizations that used to be good during certain epochs in the past. Such demise is mostly and unfortunately apportioned to the leadership of such organizations. While the context of this paper is on schools, I would prefer that we also look at this topic from a business perspective.

Educational institutions have a lot to learn from business in terms of strategies, goal setting, attention to detail, job efficacy, and employee wellness and discipline amongst other things. Whenever leadership lessons are mediated and shared, people often emphasize leading from the front.

I come from an environment where we were always urged to lead from the front, irrespective of whether one subscribes to such leadership or not. Those who were supposed to be leading us at the time, always felt that we were not leading from the front. However, it was quite interesting and often surprising to them, that I was able to achieve most of the goals that were set and beyond.

Nobody ever came to ask me how I did it, but I did not lead from the front…in the manner they expected. This paper, therefore, brings to the fore a discussion around school leadership once again. I argue that leading from the front is a fallacy that cannot be explained even by those whose disposition is to lead our education at District, Provincial and National levels. I am more convinced now writing this article than ever before, that our leaders do not understand what it means, to lead from the front.

Unfortunately, their incessant and persistent efforts were overheard and espoused by some of the school principals, who also thought they were leading from the front at the time. These principals would be found locked in their offices drawing up, for example, a school timetable, capturing marks of the grade 11 learners and making sure that only those who will do well in the following year (Grade 12) are progressed, and many other such examples like leading assemblies and others. The motivation behind here is to explore and bring to light the meaning of leading from the front.

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Is it about the school principal being everywhere? Is it about the principal doing everything? Is it about taking the front position in all activities within the schools? What is it?

I subscribe to a generation that believes in Cooperative, Shared, Collaborative, and Distributed leadership. I believe in people empowerment and capacity building for my staff. Allow people to lead and make appropriate decisions. I have seen schools falling because the principals had left, and a new leader was in charge.

Rogers and Davis-Peccoud (2005) emphasize engagement and focus on the frontline workers. They believe that these workers can build lifelong relationships with customers in terms of how they dispose of their services, and they argue that by frontline they also include those working in the backroom. In our context, these are the teachers and support staff. For these workers to prosper, they assert that they should be able to make good decisions and execute them with speed and precision. These are the people who enact the decisions taken in the boardrooms by the CEOs (Principals). While they admit that even their research did not provide a silver bullet to foster an excellent connection between employees and their jobs, they generated the following five points that will enable employee decision-making and execution.

LEADING FROM THE FRONT: FACT OR FALLACY

Set a clear vision to guide your staff (teachers and Support staff).

Define clear roles and hold the people in charge accountable.

Recruit people with the right skills and correct attitude and focus, and develop them on the measures and tasks that matter most.

Provide the right and relevant resources, working practices, ethics, and technology to help them excel at the execution level.

Inculcate a high-performance culture that motivates people at all levels to get things done and to always strive for excellence.

The notion that the best leaders are those who lead from the front is a concept that can easily be misconstrued. To some school principals, this might mean being all those things I mentioned here earlier and more. As far as I am concerned, such people have always been far from being leaders. They were so poor that some of them were more at home sick than at work, due to the stress they imbued themselves in. These are the principals who were mostly inclined and caught up in the small details and ended up micro-managing their staff, and thus missed the opportunity to see the bigger picture.

In short, they were Managers who believed that their role was to manage the people. You know what? They just did it from the front. That’s not what “Leading from the front” means. And this is what needs to be corrected. As school leaders, we need to create space and allow our teachers irrespective of the positions they hold, to lead anywhere, anytime. One of the key differences between Managers and Leaders is that while a manager sees their mission as “to manage their people” a leader sees their mission as to “manage the processes and grow their people” (Shannon Barrett, 2017).

When a person is upfront engaged in doing the daily work, they simply cannot establish the perspective necessary to see the process in its entirety and therefore end up missing the boat, and the crucial prospect to develop their staff.

“Leading from the front” means being visible and engaging at the front, in the middle, and at the back, while at the same time still being able to see the forest through the trees” (Shannon Barrett, 2017). It is a matter of perspective.

If I succeeded in getting you to think again about this topic, I am glad, it is my intention. You are welcome to send me your ideas at TshabalalaTJ@ufs.ac.za.

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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THE DISTRICT LEADERSHIP CONVERSATION On November 12, 2022 we hosted a wonderful conversation among district leaders. As part of the opening remarks, Dr. Omile reminded the attendees of their roles in making a difference in their country’s education system. She encouraged simple changes to improve their school districts, – Small changes, Big impacts which may includeadequate infrastructure and conducive environment for learning, flushable toilets or better sanitation at schools, drinking water stations at every school, air condition/fans in the classrooms, proper desks, chairs and other material for learning.

We reminded these district leaders that they play an integral role in the holistic education transformation of their countries. We encouraged them to continue to support the mission and vision of their districts, use evaluative data to plan professional development, manage resources: time, people, and spaces, use of information technology (ICT) to improve quality education.

Our mantra was: Let’s focus on MAGIC – “making a greater individual commitment.” To improve your region/zone/municipal/district.

Attendance was great, many countries were represented and the discussions were phenomenal!

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CULTIVATING INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERS FOR SUSTAINABLE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES BY: GEORGE WAH WILLIAMS, MA, M.ED

S

ustainable school improvements remain at the heart of educational endeavors across the globe, more so in developing countries than in the more developed educational landscapes.

Though performance improvement challenges differ between regions, programs, and schools, the commonality remains in the quest to improve and sustain school performance across critical service and support delivery sectors.

WHO IS AN INSTRUCTIONAL LEADER? Instructional leaders can be any number of people in a school. The principal, the assistants, the academic dean, department chairs, tenure teachers, and those with the most experience (longevity, qualifications, and the sophisticated ability to influence decision-making) are among the pool of instructional leaders. The list of school personnel above is by no means exhaustive but represents the cream of likely players. High on the list is the critical importance of principals who should serve as pacesetters, instructional recruiting connoisseurs, vision-bearers, and facilitators in chief. According to Gümüş et al. (2022), the role of principals encompasses instructional personnel supervision.

It accounts for a broader collection of capabilities vital to elevating the quality and outcome of educational service delivery.

Principals are inherently the drivers of change and, as advanced by Abdulwahab (2021), mediate said change through teachers and other school personnel.

Accomplishing this is by no means an easy feat. Principals bear the oneness of driving the change they envision in various ways. White (2021) cites the principals as trustbuilders, growth facilitators, and achievement influencers, among other critical roles. These roles are intricately connected to the positioning necessary for effective instructional leadership. With this in mind, Let’s take a closer look at principals’ facilitatory role as instructional leads and how that plays into the global focus of identifying and empowering line administrators and teachers to advance instructional practice for enhanced learning outcomes.

PRINCIPALS AS VISION-BEARERS AND TRUST BUILDERS Inarguably the most effective educational leadership 23

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George Wah Williams, MA, M.Ed., is the founding director of Educational Development Innovations, an author, civic advocate, lifelong educator, and a History instructor with Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia.

strategy commences with a clear projection of what that leadership seeks to attain. As Hancott (2017) puts it, visioning must remain an essential critical aspect of institutional leadership, and the lack is tantamount to ineffectiveness. Leaders, especially principals, take in the title and often neglect the role. The two are inseparable.

Wearing the crown essentially requires that wearers play the part. Taking on the role of principal presupposes that the title bearer has a clear understanding of the challenges faced by the school and embarks on the new journey with a set of strategies - however, structured intending to improve existing conditions and outcomes. As the lead administrators, principals are under legal, social, and moral obligations to intellectually invest wholeheartedly in their responsibilities. They understand their commitment to serve and protect the students in their charge. Additionally, the expectations are principals can raise the next productive community of local, national, and global leaders and ensure that their charge as leaders remains respected with fidelity.

Principals are vision-bearers and, considering their immense influence on the school community, enable those under their supervision to acquiesce easily. Regardless of how formed their vision might be, they are duty bound to leverage the help of other functionaries - proximate or otherwise - to fashion out and articulate their vision in

CULTIVATING INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERS FOR SUSTAINABLE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES

in consumable ways that increases buy-ins from essential staffers. The vision on its own is meaningless if it is not in sync with the drive to improve instruction and school performance. Galvanizing the buy-in of essential staff such as teachers requires trust-building, and as Browning (2014) contends, trust-building strengthens ownership among constituents such as teachers. What strategies principals employ are as crucial as getting teachers excited about the vision. With community buy-in comes the next task of facilitating the process of growth.

PRINCIPALS AS GROWTH FACILITATORS Principals, like corporate managers, are not apt to get their “hands soiled” but often transfer, mandate, direct, persuade, or convince line managers using any positive means to galvanize community support for their vision.

Most principals are enthroned in times of institutional setbacks and take on the critical role of moving institutions forward. Educationally, the foremost ambition of principals is to improve instructional outputs and increase school performance. Growth in terms of instructional performance and student output vitally requires increased levels of facilitation.

Facilitating development requires that principals model through programs and policy actions (Thessin, 2021).

Thessin maintains that while principals are, by their mandate, drivers of growth. They, by default, benefit professionally from the interactions facilitating institutional change. To drive growth, principals must possess the innate relational skills to articulate desired vision and leverage internal and external resources critical to stimulating growth from within.

PRINCIPALS AS ACHIEVEMENT INFLUENCERS The primary role of the principals is to lead the improvements in institutional achievement - leading improvement rests on several factors, including those within their gambit of influence. As principals - similar to other managerial positions - recognizing the enormous power of the job, especially with those under one’s supervision, is essential. How principals utilize that power is even more critical.

Using a combination of subliminal and direct actions invigorate and sustain school growth. In their study on how strong principals succeed, Gordon and Hart (2022) showcased how principals' leadership behavior largely energizes the attainment of institutional goals and students’ success. Leadership behavior underpinned by a deep sense of social, cultural, psychological, and

importantly, instructional aptitude is needed to attract the desired influence for achievement. It is, therefore, no understatement to recognize the irreplaceable impact of principals on students’ performance and school achievement. Principals, as earlier mentioned, are the fulcrum on which change pivots. Principals drive achievements by exerting influence on those critical to materializing the change.

After reviewing the potentialities and leadership inherent in the position of principals and their influence on instructional leadership, why have so many principals failed in their quest to drive change and increase instructional effectiveness and students’ performances?

FACTORS UNDERMINING PRINCIPALS’ INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP Principals have generally failed to lead school improvement for three researched-generated reasons. One such reason is a principal's perception of their relations with teachers. Perception of principal-teacher relations might seem unimportant to many but does pivotally play out in how principals see themselves in the eyes of those they supervise. An unfavorable perception of oneself or thoughts of being disliked by teachers rob principals of their esteem, power, and influence to engage meaningfully. In such a situation, and as Shaked (2019) points out, perceptional misjudgments undermine principals’ image of themselves through the eyes of their teachers.

Some principals are not simply derelict in discharging their duties but have very little understanding of principals' roles and responsibilities. The deficiency in understanding principals' roles is close to a poor perception of their relations with teachers. Gaining clarity contributes to better positioning, productive engagements, and stronger connections. Clarifying the principals’ role in instructional leadership - among other critical responsibilities - comes with a heightened valuing of the office's mandate. Shaked contends that principals who were unaware of the mandate of the principal’s office were more likely to negate the attending responsibilities associated with the assignment (Alsaleh, 2019). Finally, there is a third scenario in which principals take on the role without an ounce of a school’s unique goals. Where one does not exist, defining or developing feasible school goals provides a leadership framework by which principals can effectively lead.

Strategic leadership requires leaders to harness individual goals and merge such goals with institutional vision (Hansen & Lárusdóttir, 2015).

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CULTIVATING INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERS FOR SUSTAINABLE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES

CULTIVATING INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERS, HOW? In the previous passages, we deliberately belabored the importance of the role of principals in instructional leadership. Without recounting our reasons, it is vital to restate that one primary role is providing instructional leadership. What are the functions of instructional leaders, and what attributes are helpful? Perhaps the most practical and strategic approach to answering these questions is to match personalities to the tasks associated with instructional leaders. Great managers - in this instance, principals - examine the capabilities of personnel to accomplish the job of instructional leaders.

The expectations are that an instructional leader will ultimately possess the maximum collection of capabilities to facilitate their success. Of the many roles instructional leaders have, four stand out as paramount: fostering collaboration, effective modeling of instruction, resource provider, and teacher advocate. Examining these four tasks shows the need for separate sets of skills and attributes.

1) FOSTERING INSTRUCTIONAL COLLABORATION Instructional collaboration is the most effective strategy for stimulating successful schools. It is inarguable that for schools to succeed, teachers must work cooperatively to see through the institutional game plan for success.

Bringing the team on board requires instructional leaders - the principal or other line personnel - to foster collaboration among teachers and groups. Accomplishing such a feat demands that leaders possess a set of peculiar attributes. Facilitators must have strong interpersonal and intrapersonal skills(O’Leary et al., 2012).

When working with individuals and groups, instructional leaders must think strategically while consistently maintaining an awareness of individual and group dynamics and using that information to manage the support process.

2) MODELING EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION Rendering oneself as an effective instructional modeler necessitates that such instructional leaders possess pedagogic knowledge and can avail a variety of instructional techniques and strategies geared at enhancing instruction and improving learning. To achieve this task (Laghari et al., 2021) contend that instructional leaders must necessarily be one with tremendous experience, working with colleagues beyond the content and pedagogy, according to the psycho-social nature of the classroom environment. Passing on the instructional 25

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skills of planning, structuring, delivering, reflecting, and managing all aspects of the cycle requires one with a rich history of the practice, knowledge currency, and experience to guide others along that path of instructional excellence (Viesca et al., 2022). Modeling is essentially a key component of mentoring.

3) RESOURCE PROVIDER Not surprisingly, experience naturally enables instructional leaders with the capacity to seamlessly draw on their practice over the years to direct teachers to resources otherwise not readily accessible. Instructional mentors or leaders value their position of seniority. McKenna et al.

(2018) suggest that apart from the essential duties of instructional mentors, they are more than willing to share knowledge and significantly enhance practitioners' prospects for more significant collections of tools for effectiveness. It goes without saying, therefore, that Instructional leaders must be resourceful and strategic in matching mentees to them to the sources (Thompson, 2019).

4) TEACHER ADVOCATE Finally, and by no means the least of instructional leaders’ responsibilities. In their seminal research about the role of instructional leaders, Hussain Ch et al. (2018) point to teacher mentors leading the charge to campaign for improved conditions and explain instructional challenges to school leadership for cooperative remedies. As advocates, instructional leaders empathize with teachers and are willing to pursue their interests fearlessly. Mentee teachers see instructional leaders as authentic and more than willing to trust their instructional counsel. Mentee belief and trust in the interaction with instructional leaders have been found to directly impact mentees' commitment to their institutions. Comstock and Margolis (2021) are in the best position to evaluate teachers under supervision.

CONCLUSION Instructional leaders are a critical factor in the equation of school success. Schools that have significantly improved instructional delivery and learning outcomes have relied on instructional leaders—their invaluable determination to manifest institutional aspirations through close relations with teachers. Instructional leaders must be one with author bequeath by experience - as in lead teachers - and authority - as in principals. Educational leaders are obliged by duty to match personalities to the tasks demanded of instructional mentors to ensure that the correct picks are made, and the desired results are realized.

CULTIVATING INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERS FOR SUSTAINABLE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES

RESOURCES Abdulwahab, A. A. (2021). The roles of school principals and head teachers in mitigating potential learning loss in the online setting: calls for change. International Journal of Educational Management, 35(7), 1525–1537.

Alsaleh, A. (2019). Investigating instructional leadership in Kuwait’s educational reform context: school leaders' perspectives. School Leadership & Management, 39(1), 96–120.

Browning, P. (2014). Why trust the head? Key practices for transformational school leaders to build a purposeful relationship of trust. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 17(4), 388– 409.

Comstock, M., & Margolis, J. (2021). “Tearing Down the Wall”: Making Sense of Teacher Leaders as Instructional Coaches and Evaluators.

Journal of School Leadership, 31(4), 297–317.

Gordon, M. F., & Hart, H. (2022). How strong principals succeed: improving student achievement in high-poverty urban schools. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 60(3), 288–302.

Gümüş, S., Şükrü, B. M., & Pietsch, M. (2022). School leadership and achievement gaps based on socioeconomic status: a search for socially just instructional leadership. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 60(4), 419–438.

Hancott, D. (2017). Leadership Is What?: The Importance of Vision, Integrity, and Developing Others. Lulu Press, Inc. Hansen, B., & Lárusdóttir, S. H. (2015). Instructional Leadership in Compulsory Schools in Iceland and the Role of School Principals.

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 59(5), 583–603.

Hussain Ch, Ahmad, & Batool. (2018). Head Teacher as an Instructional Leader in School. Bulletin of Education and Research. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1209683.pdf Laghari, A., Kakepoto, I., & Arshad, F. (2021). Microteaching: An Effective Stratagem for Novice Teachers of English Language. In Global Educational Studies Review: Vol. VI (Issue IV, pp. 163–173). https://doi.org/10.31703/gesr.2021(vi-iv).17 McKenna, M. K., Pugno, P. A., & Frist, W. H. (2018). Learning From Leaders: Relationships, Mentors, and Teamwork. In Physicians as Leaders (pp. 271–276). https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315378244-23 O’Leary, R., Choi, Y., & Gerard, C. M. (2012). The skill set of the successful collaborator. Public Administration Review, 72(s1), S70– S83.

Shaked, H. (2019). Perceptual inhibitors of instructional leadership in Israeli principals. School Leadership & Management, 39(5), 519–536.

Thessin, R. A. (2021). Engaging in joint work with principals: How principal supervisors’ joint facilitation of teams contributes to principals’ practice development. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 1– 23.

Thompson, C. (2019). The Magic of Mentoring: Developing Others and Yourself. Routledge.

Viesca, K. M., Teemant, A., Alisaari, J., Ennser-Kananen, J., Flynn, N., Hammer, S., Perumal, R., & Routarinne, S. (2022). Quality content teaching for multilingual students: An international examination of excellence in instructional practices in four countries. Teaching and Teacher Education, 113, 103649.

White, L. (2021). Practicing Effective Instructional Leadership as a School Principal. BU Journal of Graduate Studies in Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1304403

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NATIONAL ACTION FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN ZAMBIA (NAQEZ) BY: MR. AARON CHANSA - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF NAQEZ

HOW NAQEZ HAS BEEN CALLING FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ZAMBIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

T

he major reason why the National Action for Quality Education in Zambia was formed in 2015 was to push for improvements in the quality of education in Zambia. Studies and various national assessments had shown that the standard of education in the country was among the least in Southern Africa. Zambian learners performed badly in literacy, numeracy and in vocational skills.

To challenge the above ugly status quo, Zambia needed a strong and non- compromising national movement. The leader of this outfit needed to strictly be non-partisan, objective and well-grounded in educational matters.

In order to create a national movement for quality education in Zambia, I embarked on the task of identifying very patriotic and committed citizens who would willingly and voluntarily agree to fiercely champion for quality education. I began by identifying provincial coordinators and within the first six months of NAQEZ formation, all the ten provinces of Zambia had coordinators for the organization. These coordinators had their advocacy and leadership skills capacity built before they were sent to identify individuals that would coordinate advocacy activities in districts. Today, NAQEZ has coordinators in all the 116 districts of Zambia. My dream of coming up with a truly national and revolutionary advocacy movement for quality education in Zambia came true by having a well – coordinated, focused and determined team of advocates dotted across the country. Obviously, this feat did not come easy; it didn’t accidentally happen. It took a lot of strategic planning, patience, teamwork, hard work, focus and networking.

Between 2015 and 2018, I and my executive team tirelessly worked on building advocacy capacities of both Provincial and district coordinators. We realized that for our Officers to effectively engage in meaningful advocacy, they needed appropriate skills and competencies. Most organizations fail to make a mark because officers lack capacity to work. After building capacities of our field advocates, we set in motion a powerful nation that would eventually become the most powerful and influential educational voice in the country.

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Last month during the scandal about teacher aiding students to cheat during standardized examinations, Mr. Chansa condemned the action of the teachers and referred to it as offensive to the teaching profession, which reduces the integrity of the exams. He said that “there actions went against the code of ethics for teachers” and urged the teaching council of Zambia to take action to ensure that those involved in the scandal were disciplined.

These district and provincial leaders began to use NAQEZ as a platform to campaign for more funding to the education sector, for more teachers in public schools, more books and more schools.

Taking advantage of more than 100 community radio stations and more than 30 TV stations dotted across the country, and using their newly acquired advocacy skills, the “ Champions” as NAQEZ volunteers are fondly called, waged a serious national campaign for quality education .With a national, most consistent and evidence based advocacy, Government, the UN system, teachers, CSOs, the Media, the Church, pupils, traditional leaders, trade unions, teachers and learning institutions paid serious attention to issues we were raising as an organization.

NAQEZ UNAPOLOGETIC APPROACH TO OVERHAULING THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN ZAMBIA Today, and partly because of our strong advocacy to overhaul the education system in Zambia, the overwhelming majority of our citizens are calling on the Government to transform the education system. One of the strategic reasons why NAQEZ has sustained its fierce campaign for the improvement of the education system is its total political neutrality.

NATIONAL ACTION FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN ZAMBIA (NAQEZ)

There is a very strong policy at NAQEZ of not allowing Officers and volunteers to be partisan. This has helped the organization to remain objective, focused, and united.

This non –partisanship of NAQEZ and its Officers has clearly given the organization a unique space in the country to an extent that, even when we strongly disagree with the Government on specific educational policies or programs, no one in Government takes offense. Over time, the Government system has come to know about our objectivity, our national commitment and higher premium we attach to education.

After 2019, we began to forge important alliances with strategic organizations, just to build a much more powerful force for quality education in Zambia. We joined the Zambian National Education Coalition (ZANEC), Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR), Zambia Social Forum (ZSF) and signed MoUs with Zambia Teachers Forum and Chibombo Child Development Agency.

Apart from having joint actions such as pre-budget and post budget symposiums, NAQEZ went into partnerships with influential online publications such as the Zambia Education Information Centre [ZEIC] and Chalk Breakers Zambia. These platforms have so far proved to be very effective in the NAQEZ crusade for quality education. In 2019 for example, NAQEZ with the Zitukule Consortium effectively used the mainstream media as well as online publications to efficiently and effectively the “Education First '' project. In December 2019, my team effectively engaged Hon. David Mabumba, Minister of Education then over the need for a national conference to discuss educational reforms. This conference was held in January 2020 and was graced by Madam Inonge Wina, the Republican Vice President that time. This conference brought together all educational stakeholders for the purpose of agreeing on areas of improvement for the Zambian education system. At the end of this historic conference, a communique was read by the Minister of Education. The communique outlined many areas of the education system that needed reforms.

In 2021, NAQEZ joined the GEAR Alliance comprising SAYWHAT of Zimbabwe, GAYO from Malawi and FACET from Zimbabwe. The formation of this alliance was deliberately done in order to give chance to NAQEZ to learn more, share to alliance members and thereby expanding educational advocacy to the SADC levels.

Through this unique regional alliance, a lot of learning platforms have been created for NAQEZ and me as its founder. The learning and linking has immensely given NAQEZ more firepower to engage the Zambian Government over educational reforms and policies.

Because of the open mind which we have at NAQEZ, we have a lot of capacity and now engaging our Government on budgetary allocations to education and on Voluntary National Reviews. We have now started holding the Government accountable by having Provincial educational conferences where Government and elected officials are called to demonstrate their commitments to education.

The media has been and will continue to be a great ally to NAQEZ because of its influencing effects. Realizing its importance, we have identified one journalist at every media house as our focal person. We treat them as part of the organization, and this has worked very well for us.

When we call for press conferences or do press statements, because we are very friendly to them, our stories are given prominence by all media houses.

ACTIONS BEING TAKEN TO TRANSFORM THE ZAMBIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM The first step the Zambian Government has done is to pronounce the free education policy from pre -school up to Secondary school level. Government has abolished all school fees and is now giving operational grants to all primary and secondary schools. This has seen the population of learners to increase from 4,500,000 last year to 5,200,000 this year. In July this year, the Government recruited 30,496 new teachers. In the history of the country, this has never happened. This action will improve the pathetic teacher-pupil ratios which have been obtained in many schools across the country. Before this recruitment, NAQEZ heavily campaigned for recruitment of teachers through physical engagements, letters and through mainstream media. I personally led my team on many TV and radio stations in demanding for recruitment of teachers.

Just last month, in September of 2022, the Ministry announced that it would undertake curriculum review.

This exercise would culminate into educational reforms. My organization was invited to attend the special event which was organized by the Ministry to launch curriculum review. NAQEZ will now take this rare opportunity to submit a position paper on how the Zambian education system can be reformed for the better.

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NATIONAL ACTION FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN ZAMBIA (NAQEZ)

CONCLUSION Leading NAQEZ from 2015 up to now has been extremely exciting, challenging, a period of learning and a time of contributing to my country. I have given my very best to the fight for quality education in Zambia. My strong belief is that education is a public good which must be consumed by all human beings. I also fervently believe that the Government has an inherent responsibility to provide quality education to its entire people.

Mr. Aaron Chansa has been working with SAYWHAT [Zimbabwe], GAYO [Malawi] and FACET (Zimbabwe) on implementing the Girls Education in the Region [GEAR] Project. He has also been working with UNESCO, UNICEF, Ministry of General Education, ZANEC, TCZ, TSC, Examinations Council of Zambia Higher Education Authority in formulating various policies and programs for the education sector. Has been working with the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSP) on formulating and evaluating social and economic policies and programs in Zambia and has been a part time lecturer in Public Administration and Political Science at the University of Zambia Extension Studies. Has been a leadership mentor at the Zambia National Women’s Lobby.

NAQEZ delegates at the Southern African Region Students and Youth Conference (SARSYC) Lilongwe – Malawi

Participants during a 2023 pre-budget symposium organized by National Action for Quality Education in Zambia - NAQEZ, ActionAid Zambia – AAZ and Zambia National Education Coalition – ZANEC

Mr. Aaron Chansa at the launch of the Girls Education Advocacy in the Region - GEAR project

Participants during the training on Voluntary National Review process (VNR) 29

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

PRINCI-POLL Use of Substitute Teachers in the Classrooms We polled principals and headteachers in SubSahara Africa with the following scenario:

What happens to a classroom when a teacher is absent for a day or two or for an extended period due to illness, surgery, maternity leave, etc.?

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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PRINCIPALLY SPEAKING We asked the principals and headteachers from the previous page to explain how they would deal with an absent teacher.

PART ONE "Divide learners into other classes."

"The absence of a teacher for any class should call for the attention of the head of the school, who should arrange how such a class should be covered with the respective heads of departments. In Sierra Leone, heads of departments have fewer classes and can step in as an immediate remedy if the class is one that they can handle. Departmental heads can help rearrange the timetable temporarily if the absence is short. If the absence is long, a contract teacher on a part time basis can be arranged. The school authorities can have that as an alternative."

"I usually encourage my teachers to send in their excuses ahead of the class time - this helps with the preparation process for the substitute teacher. More to that, considering that emergencies can occur at any time, I do encourage my teachers to share their lesson notes with me - soft copy or hard copy. I also pair teachers who are teaching similar courses to help sit in in case their colleague is absent. Covid has taught me a hard lesson about proactive planning. And I think I am learning every day."

"As it stands now in Ghana there is no official arrangements from GES to deal with such a situation but what I usually do is that I meet the department concerned and rearrange the Timetable to enable other teachers in the department to share the absentee teacher's periods and add to their existing periods."

"Take care of the class yourself (head teacher or principal)."

"The principal/head teacher is known as instructional and supportive Leaders therefore, they are always in place to assist/help. when a teacher is absent and even when present."

"In a situation, where a teacher is absent in a class due to illness, he or she should hand over his or her lesson plan/note to another teacher who can eligible use the lesson plan/note to deliver the lesson to the students in the absence of the sick teacher, that is substitution. That is why teacher's need to prepare their lesson plan/note clearly and understandable. In case of any matter arising that the subject teacher is ill, another eligible teacher can take up the lesson plan/note and deliver the lesson to the students."

"The grade head divides learners for the absent teacher and places them in the same grade but different teachers. This is mostly effective in the foundation phase but for inter-Sen we have substitute timetables targeting educators who are present to do substitutions."

"Place a trained substitute teacher in the classroom."

"Work is given to the learners to continue with the short-term absenteeism of the teacher."

"The full-time teacher should hand over the schemes of work to the Head of Department who would in turn engage the substitute teacher. Substitute teacher would be paid a third of the full time Teacher's salary if the full-time teacher is away for a minimum of 1 to 10 days but be paid a gross salary."

"Place colleagues in the same department to help the teacher and give them a token."

"Place a trained substitute teacher."

"Get the trained teacher who is on station to cover up for the teacher who is absent and upon reporting, the then teacher should patch up or fix a remedial lesson."

"School should get another alternative, or engage a teacher to assist."

"The absent teacher first arranges with a colleague to stand in for."

"The HOD is contacted immediately to get another teacher for the class. It becomes easier if the absentee teacher calls in."

"Need to find out what makes him or her absent before any action could be taken because he or she may have tangible reason. Notwithstanding, it depends on the teachers attitude to work before the absent."

"Replacement of teacher."

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

PRINCIPALLY SPEAKING We asked the principals and headteachers from the previous page to explain how they would deal with an absent teacher.

PART TWO "Teachers in the department always help to cover up for their colleague."

"The services of a member from the same department should replace the absent or sick teacher. Team teaching applies in such a case, but learners should not be left without learning."

"In the case of an absent teacher that is trained and qualified, I will take another substitute teacher that is trained and qualify to replace him or her (more especially in a lower class) It's done to maintain the standard of teaching and learning."

"Confusion."

"Outsource a part-time teacher" "A teacher on staff handles class. The absent teacher shall compensate on return."

"As a head of the institution try to know the reason why the teacher in cautioned is absent."

"I simply ask another teacher in the department to cover."

"Employ a teacher to handle the workload if it is much and for a prolonged time, or reorganize within the department to accommodate the load."

"By substitute teacher who to step shoe in d capacity of the teacher that is absent."

"I will hand over the classroom to a co teacher that teaches the same subject and arrange the timetable in case of clash on the subject matter."

"Divide the Learners and put them in other classes so that the don't miss out."

"The two teachers would be asked to interact so as to help the teacher taking over know how and where to take over from.

The engagement will have to be continuous to produce the expected outcome."

"Keep in touch and give the necessary support, as you provide substitute teacher for the class."

"Replace the absent teacher with a trained teacher to make the teaching and learning to continue as planned."

"Place a trained substitute teacher."

"Place a trained substitute teacher in the classroom."

"In the private sector it's possible to engage a trained teacher to help."

"I would have liked the absence to be reported in advance and that arrangements be made so that the students do not lose."

"We sent in a trained substitute teacher to fill in the gap."

"Place a trained substitute teacher in the class "Sometimes I get another class to gap up but of course giving the less of their daily package."

"I will place a trained professional teacher."

"Establish exact conditions and make appropriate intervention."

"A teacher of related discipline manages the gap."

"The only remedy to the absence of a teacher from the classroom due to circumstances is to place a trained substitute teacher in the classroom."

"Place a trained substitute teacher in the classroom."

"Absent teacher will leave work for substitute teacher to work with learners and also ATP to be available."

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STUDENT CENTERED:

TECHNICAL SKILLS ACQUISITION IN ACTION AT MOTHER KEVIN COLLEGE-MABIRA IN UGANDA BY: MR. PAUL SSERUNJONGI

M

other Kevin College-Mabira is a mixed boarding Secondary School located in Buikwe District, Central Uganda. It is situated in Kinoni parish, Lugazi Municipalityoff the Kampala-Jinja Highway. The school currentlyhas a total population of 702 students, 352 girls and 350 boys.

THE NEW COMPETENCY BASED CURRICULUM The school implements core-curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular programs. Under core-curricular programs, we offer both Science and Arts subjects. All these subjects are practical based, and they are supervised by highly trained and competitive instructors who entirely rely on learner centered methodologies of learning. This has made our learners become creative, critical, problem solvers hence conforming to the individuals expected in the 21st Century.

STUDENT TALENT SHOWS

Our co-curricular activities entail students’ council, school sports teams involved in games like; football, netball, volleyball, handball to mention but a few. We also have the Science club, Talent shows, debates, drama production, writers’ and interact clubs.

Our extra-curricular activities involve distinct Church related programs such as Choir practice and Animation of the Holy Mass usually conducted on Wednesdays and Sundays throughout the term. The school also conducts major assemblies every Monday and Friday where learners receive necessary guidance and counseling. This comprehensive approach to Education has enabled us to nurture holistic learners.

Most of our learners are from middle socioeconomic status and a few from the high socioeconomic status; therefore, it is only the Competence Based Curriculum which can help them to attain their dreams and bridge discrepancies that exist among them.

Mr. Paul Sserunjongi is the principal of Mother Kevin College, Mabira. The school was officially opened in 2020, he was happy to be the pioneer principal up to date. He holds a Diploma, a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Nkozi University, and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the same university.

ANIMATION OF MASS

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TECHNICAL SKILLS ACQUISITION IN ACTION AT MOTHER KEVIN COLLEGE-MABIRA IN UGANDA

STUDENTS HARVESTING FISH

PRINCIPAL, MR. PAUL SSERUNJONGI The implementation of the New Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) in our School has created a key change and a move from a knowledge-based curriculum to a Competence and Skill Based Curriculum. CBC in our School focuses on four key learning outcomes: selfassured individuals, responsible and patriotic citizens, lifelong learners, and positive contributors to the society. We emphasize knowledge, application, and behavioral change. The curriculum is based on a clear set of values which we impart to our learners during the learning process. At the heart of every subject in our school, there are generic skills that allow development into life-long learners. Besides, we also have cross cutting challenges that are embedded across subjects taught in our school to enable learners to understand the connections between the subject and the complexities of life.

There are several projects that the school has put in place to equip learners with necessary life skills as required by the New Competency Based Curriculum. Amongst them is the Fish farm.

This Fish farm is the second largest in the Country.

There are eleven fishponds which are named after Uganda’s major Lakes. This fish farm has become an essential learning component since the learners have gained knowledge and skills on how to feed, care, and harvest fish. The fish harvested from the fishponds is consumed by both students and staff.

Besides the fish project, the learners are also actively involved in the Agricultural project where they grow several vegetables such as cabbages, onions, collard greens(sukumawiki), tomatoes, egg plants to mention but a few. This project has equipped learners with sustainable skills and life-long learning that will enable them to live as responsible citizens by addressing some of the societal issues like shortage of food.

To successfully implement the CBC, the teachers and the administrators have instituted a committee that is in charge of supervising all the activities carried out in every subject department so that the objectives of the CBC are fully achieved. All these departments work as a team to scheme, do lesson planning, generate relevant methodologies of learning, instructional materials, and assessment tools. This teamwork has promoted togetherness, creativity, problem solving and innovation.

The teachers also supervise all the projects and different programs mentioned above.

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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STUDENT DISCIPLINE TIP OF AN ICEBERG: THE MAKERERE UNIVERSITY SCANDAL IN UGANDA

BY T.G LATITLOK

N

o job stinks more than teaching. Irrespective of the levels. Everyone expects you to be an angel.

The highest observers of code of ethics, masters of knowledge, perfect humans, or even perfect babysitters - trash!

They are more advanced day-care centers where hooligans Who give sleepless nights to parents are dumped on the guise of education, yet the teacher has no power over them whatsoever. Looks like most students are in schools simply as fashion other than purpose.

What happened at Makerere University in Uganda to a Mr. Bernard Wandera, a lecturer trending on social media for alleged slapping of one of his students, is in fact a reflection of the greater silent killer in Uganda's education system. It's simply a tip of an iceberg afloat an impure water of education.

I probably would have turned out an intellectual dwarf were it not for a kind of a teacher who is privileged to have taught in the 90s. That teacher would slap with four of his five fingers leaving marks on your skin for not less than 24 hours. His name was Lukale; a notorious teacher who slapped me for failing to show my hands up to be picked. After teaching the content in "cako Kwan I leb Acoli", Lukale asked Who could read any of the writings on the page. Virtually, every other pupil had their hands up except for lousy shy me. He told everyone to put their hands down and that "Topaco" should do what was at the time, a seriously daunting task to me. When I couldn’t, he came closer and powerfully released his well-documented weapon of mass destruction, slapping my cheeks like his life was hanged by it. He Then let me have a copy of the book for a night so I would be able to read it the following day. All this as a primary two kid.

It was said that Makerere University administration has suspended him due to pressures from different redundant opportunists masquerading as civil societies and right groups. The manner in which inflated importance is attached to this case is like Uganda beats everyone in observing human rights.

Well, I agree that slapping was not the best option but again when I see the video, it hasn't exceeded a tolerable range however mean the range maybe. It was purely for disciplinary purposes against the Orthodox bureaucracy, something heavily a part and parcel of any good teacher.

My argument is purely premised on the clip not any further investigation but apparently, the lousy student was making noise and using a phone in class and causing all manner of distraction to the learning process. A deserved punishable offense on all spheres of Sense.

Today's Universities, tertiary institutions and Even secondary Schools are fast turning into recycling systems where garbage called students are dumped for the institution, yet the throwers keep close eyes on the recycler.

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

With the help of my primary six uncle, I did not just learn to read what was on the next page, I could read anything in the book pages, all in one night! This was an insurance against the calamitous slaps that have always been guaranteed for those less responsive to learning.

The following day, I was more impatient waiting for Lukale instead of evading him. When he finally arrived and as expected, he started by demanding my presence which I proved, then to my assignment, which I did with the utmost precision and command. I even went beyond that page until he smilingly requested me to Stop. He wasn't the lion he was barely 24 hours ago. Academically, I wasn't left the same. It was until then that I realized that his actions have no other attachments except for academic purposes.

STUDENT DISCIPLINE - TIP OF AN ICEBERG

In my school, when Lukale slaps you, you are better off not telling your parents because you are sure to swallow more doses of pain. Parents believed in the teachers so much that they were willing to accommodate teachers’ weaknesses about a wide tolerable range. Not the current so-called "enlightened" parents who think they are more important than the teachers.

Teachers and Lecturers should enjoy a considerable degree of immunity depending on the circumstances.

For this case, Wandera didn't even deserve a disciplinary sitting, but the university went ahead to suspend him just to impress neo colonial agents masquerading in the country as civil societies and gender mainstream. Any Adult Who hasn't slapped nor slapped anyone should show up. He or she should tell us the cage he/she grew from. Apparently, the trending video was also taken by a student. Within that small space of time, the person could afford to take a video, implying that he was virtually on the phone as lectures went on. Is that the value for money we need, however enlightened we think we are? The videographer should be suspended from the University as well.

From the looks of things, the Lecturer punished a student, and it happened that the student was a female. His actions have nothing gender to it. Now every feminist ideological vacuum is alert like it's even anything serious. What would have happened if the slapped was a male? Which right group would jump in that fast? Feminism must have a limit. It's a tool being employed by the West to break the backbone of Africa by destroying families. Single motherhood is at an alltime high in Africa, domestic violence has risen due to the dubious emancipation which has inculcated very unfounded 'egos' in women. It hasn't helped, it has worsened matters instead.

Much as students should be held to high esteem, teachers shouldn't be scapegoats less the GiGo principle won't stop with computers only. It will extend to schools and educational institutions. To avoid being on the wrong side of the dumbfounded enlightenment, teachers will allow " Garbage in, Garbage out" and it isn't a difficult thing to do.

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: TRANSFORMING EDUCATION, BUILDING OUR FUTURE 2022 United Nations Transforming Education Summit. Held from September 16th-19th, 2022. Where global leaders continue general debate.

The Transforming Education Summit is a key initiative of Our Common Agenda launched by UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in September 2021. The Summit took place during the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

The Summit was convened in response to a global crisis in education – one of them is equity and inclusion, quality and relevance. Often slow and unseen, this crisis is having a devastating impact on the futures of children and youth worldwide. The Summit provided a unique opportunity to elevate education to the top of the global political agenda and to mobilize action, ambition, solidarity and solutions to recover pandemic-related learning losses and sow the seeds to transform education in a rapidly changing world.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

On October 20, 2022, African leaders gathered in Mauritius to mull solutions to the education gap highlighted by a new United Nations education agency report which shows children on the continent are five times less likely to learn the basics, than those living elsewhere. It was noted that the ability of education systems to ensure even rudimentary literacy skills for their students has declined in four out of 10 African countries over the last three decades. The findings are published in the first of a three-part series of Spotlight reports on foundational learning in Africa, called Born to Learn, published by the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report at UNESCO, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and the African Union.

Manos Antoninis, Director of the GEM Report, said while every child is born to learn, they can’t do so if they’re hungry, lack textbooks, or don’t speak the language they’re being taught in. He continued to say that lack of basic support for teachers is another key factor. “Every country needs to learn too, ideally from its peers”, added Mr. Antoninis. “We hope this Spotlight report will guide ministries to make a clear plan to improve learning, setting a vision for change, working closely with teachers and school leaders, and making more effective use of external resources”.

The report includes data from accompanying country reports developed in partnership with ministries of education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal and a series of other case studies on the continent.

Key recommendations: 1. Give all children a textbook: Ensure all children have learning materials, which are research-based and locally developed. Having their own textbook can increase a child’s literacy scores by up to 20%. Senegal’s Lecture pour tous project ensured textbooks were high quality. Benin is celebrated for its system-wide curriculum and textbook reform that has provided more explicit and direct instruction for teachers.

2. Teach all children in their home language: Give all children the opportunity to learn to read in the language they understand. In 16 out of 22 countries, at most, one third of students are taught in their home language. Mozambique’s recent expansion of bilingual education covers around a quarter of primary schools, with children learning under the new approach achieving outcomes 15 per cent higher than those learning in one language.

3. Provide all children with a school meal: Give all children the minimum conditions to learn: zero hungry pupils in school. Today, only one in three primary school students in Africa receive a school meal. Rwanda has committed to deliver school meals to all children from pre-primary to lower secondary education, covering 40 percent of costs.

4. Make a clear plan to improve learning: Define learning standards, set targets and monitor outcomes to inform the national vision. There is no information on the learning levels of two-thirds of children across the region. This represents 140 million students. The Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project, is working on a framework for learning accountability.

5. Develop teacher capacity: Ensure all teachers use classroom time effectively through training and teacher guides. A recent study covering 13 countries, 8 of them in sub-Saharan Africa, found that projects with teacher guides significantly increased reading fluency.

6. Prepare teacher-leaders: Restructure support mechanisms offered to teachers and schools. The Let’s Read programme in Kenya, which combined school support and monitoring with effective leadership has seen improvements equivalent to one additional year of schooling for children.

7. Learn from peers: Reinvigorate mechanisms for countries to share experiences on foundational literacy and numeracy.

8. Focus aid on institution building: Shift from projects to provision of public goods that support foundational learning.

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF PRINCIPALS (ICP) COUNCIL PLUS MEETING IN SINGAPORE The 13th Global Educational Leadership Conference, organized by the Academy of Principals Singapore, (APS) was held from October 27th through 30th this year. President Dr. Shirleen Chee and her colleagues in APS ushered warm welcome and great hospitality from all the principals around the world during their first meeting in over 2 years because of the pandemic. The ICP President- Dr. Peter Kent was delighted at the event. Among other attendees were leaders of secondary and primary schools’ principals’ associations across Africa and the ACP- African confederation of principals.

The Education Minister, Chan Chun Sing was the Keynote speaker. His opening address provided an inspirational message that set the tone for the conference. He said that it is educators who hold the future leaders in their hands and acknowledged that it’s easier for policymakers to develop policies to change structures than it is to change culture, but he added that to change culture you need exemplary leadership, high moral and ethical purpose and a sense of value. He thus challenged school leaders to display such leadership and fundamentally, consider the ‘why’ of what we do in schools and not just what and how.

Mr. Kahi Indimuli (Kenya Secondary Schools Headteachers Association) KSSHA President presenting

Mr. Anselem Isuagie, ACP President, Dr. Peter Kent and Alahaji Ibin Musa current president of ANCOPSS

Members from Africa- Alahaji Ibin Musa, President of ANCOPSS (Association of Nigerian Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools), Anselem Isuagie- President of ACP (African Confederation of Principals), Mr. Alfred Kahi Indimuli, President of KSSHA

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

IN THE NEWS UGANDA Recently the ministry of education released a revised school calendar. The new calendar is now the standard 12 weeks instead of the adopted 14 weeks calendar to mitigate COVID-19 education loss. Dr. Grace Bugama-the Director of The Ugandan National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) said that the new calendar will not affect learning and schools are expected to continue teaching using the abridged curriculum. The abridged curriculum was introduced to fast-track teaching and learning and make up for the time lost during the pandemic school closures. She reiterated that the abridged curriculum will remain in schools for the next three years.

On October 17th - 19th, 2022, Dr. Grace Baguma hosted an executive meeting of the African Curriculum Association (ACA) at the NCDC Headquarters in Kyambogo. This brought together education experts to discuss the future of curriculum development in Africa and the world at large.

Dr. Grace Baguma who is also the Chairperson of the African Curriculum Association said at the event that “We need to look at curriculum that brings out the kind of person we want. We are looking at a transformative curriculum that will look at not only this generation but future generations.” She continued that “Africa is talking about an Afro-centric curriculum; knowledge that is inward looking. Knowledge is global but we can have our own researched knowledge that makes us innovative and critical thinkers.”

In attendance was representatives from most African countries: Honorable John Ntim Fordjour, the Deputy Minister of Education of Ghana, The Minister for State for Higher Education, Dr John Chrysestom Muyingo attended the meeting on behalf of the First Lady and Hon Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Kataha Museveni and many others.

They emphasized on the skills needed by young adults to thrive in this world, competencies like critical thinking, communication, and creativity and also on shifting from humanities to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), with a strategic target to ensure that by 2030, Africa should be able to turn the narrative of the present 60% humanities and 40% sciences to a 60:40 ratio in favor of sciences.”

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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IN THE NEWS GHANA DR. YAW ADUTWUM, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION IS WORKING HARD TO ENSURE POSITIVE CHANGES IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN GHANA INCLUDING PUBLIC SCHOOLS. On the 7th of November 2022, the minister met with private school proprietors led by Rev. William Baakoo the president of NUPSG and outlined his plans for the Ghana education system. The proprietors listed a few challenges confronting the Private schools in Ghana and called on the Minister to help address the issues.

Rev Baako expressed dissatisfaction with the operations of National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA)- an extension of the new Education regulatory body. The NaSIA mandates that any pre-tertiary education institution must register with the authority within six months of inception. The NaSIA is the watchful eye of the minister for education in all pre-tertiary schools -private or public to ensure that they meet the standards of education in Ghana.

According to the Reverend, NaSIA has refused to issue certificates that have been paid for by private schools proprietors in his region.

Dr. Adutuwm, the minister for education in Ghana and Rev. Baakoo, the president of the private school’s Union.

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IN THE NEWS ZAMBIA ELEVEN TEACHERS SUSPENDED FOR EXAM MALPRACTICE On November 17th, 2022, eleven teachers and Head teachers were suspended for engaging in examination malpractice.

The Director of the Examination Council of Zambia, Dr. Michael Chilala said that nine teachers are from Mpongwe district while the other two are from Chilanga district. He added that the nine in Mpongwe include the Head Teacher and a deputy Head Teacher, and the two from Chilanga were a Head Teacher and a deputy Head Teacher.

It was reported that the two from Chilanga district were planning to engage in malpractice in the grade nine examinations that are scheduled to start the week of November 21st. The suspended teachers from Mpongwe district were charging 150 Kwacha to assist each pupil per subject.

Meanwhile, Teacher Unions have described the situation as unfortunate. Zambia National Union of Teachers acting General Secretary Mrs. Catherine Chinunda urged the teachers to refrain from engaging in malpractice and maintain the credibility of the exams. Also, the Secondary Schools Teachers Union of Zambia’s General Secretary Sitibekiso Wamuyuwa said that any teacher's misconduct, or unprofessional behavior will not have the support of the Union.

----------In other news, the Government of Zambia has called on headteachers in grant-aided public and private schools to urgently deal with escalating issues of bullying, substance abuse and bad behaviors from students. The ministry of education permanent secretary Mr. Joel Kamoko said that it is very important to enhance and heighten the guidance and counseling in schools.

YOUNG AFRICANS RISING 20 YOUNG AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURS WERE AWARDED $100,000 EACH TO SUPPORT THEIR ENTERPRISES THAT OFFER INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TO FOSTER CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCE. Read the full article written by Kingsley Ighobor.

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AFRICAN & DIASPORA YOUNG LEADERS FORUM THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE WILL BE HOSTING AN INPERSON FORUM WITH EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG LEADERS OF AFRICAN DESCENT FROM DECEMBER 13TH – 15TH, 2022 IN WASHINGTON, D.C. THE THEME OF THE FORUM IS “AMPLIFYING VOICES: BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS THAT LAST.” FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Jennifer Goodman, 202-341-1833 in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State at diasporaafricasummit@state.gov.

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

GET STARTED TOWARDS A HAPPIER, HEALTHIER YOU!

Dispute negative thinking. When you overreact, blow things out of proportion, or become overly self-critical, stop and analyze the facts. Usually, they won’t support your negative thoughts.

Stop ruminating. Constantly going over adverse situations and thoughts perpetuates bad feelings and doesn’t accomplish anything. Look for healthy distractions that focus your attention elsewhere. Engage in activities that bring you joy.

The mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will change.

Look for the silver lining in challenging situations. If you habitually view the glass as half empty, challenge yourself to find it half full.

Try mindfulness activities like yoga and meditation to learn how to attend to thoughts with awareness and without judgment. Having a negative thought doesn’t mean you must react to it emotionally.

Read inspirational quotes and stories. Watch movies that make you laugh. Savor the beauty around you and share good news with others.

Keep a gratitude journal. Count your blessings and give thanks to those who help make your world better.

Engage in an act of kindness every day. Volunteer for a cause you care about. Utilize your personal strengths in the work you do on a daily basis. Visualize a successful future achieving your goals and dreams.

Treat yourself kindly.

Focus on the good.

Find "me" time.

Practice positive talk.

Develop mindfulness.

Take a deep breath.

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E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Dear Educational Leaders, We’ve made it to the end of the year again! Congratulations are in order, as well as a big dose of compassion. This year has been challenging for all of us—some more than others as we brought our students back to school. We’ve learned a lot—about education, about the world, about ourselves. With struggle comes adaptation and growth, but also fatigue, grief, and a need to go inward, rest, and reconnect with ourselves and the things that matter most—our loved ones, our passions, and our well being more generally.

E.L. Africa magazine wants to take a moment to wish you peace, joy and prosperity throughout the coming year. Thank you for your continued partnership and support for students in sub-Saharan Africa.

While many of us are excited to bid this year farewell and see what 2023 has in store, we recognize the importance of completing cycles. For this unique year, it means celebration and gratitude as well as rejuvenation. This can look like taking a few deep breaths to reset our nervous system, making time to relax, giving thanks for our on-going learning, and acknowledging our appreciation for those who have supported us, both personally, professionally, and impersonally throughout the year.

If you’re heading into the New Year feeling fatigued or stressed, we want you to know that we’re with you and we support you.

This magazine contains helpful articles full of meaningful suggestions to help you rejuvenate in preparation for starting 2023 fresh and ready for new opportunities. Next year, we will provide leadership professional development webinars to support you through 2023. If this year has taught us anything, it’s that if we take care of ourselves and we take care of one another, we can get through anything. We would like to express our sincerest appreciation for the trust you have placed in us and best wishes for the holidays.

Frances Ufondu Dr. Frances Ufondu Executive Publisher E.L. Africa Magazine

E.L. AFRICA | DECEMBER 2022

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