Schools can solve their problems, teacher says

Schools should not depend on the government or Teaching Service Commission (TSC) to solve their problems, Gerehu Secondary School deputy principal Francis Saju says.
He said schools had a lot of problems but he believes they can solve them on their own rather than waiting on the government or TSC.
“If we only depend on the government or the TSC to look after our problems, they will never be solved,” Saju said.
He said every school should have a professional learning management team made up of  staff to look after assessment, attendance,  poor performance and other aspects.
“If teachers are not attending classes, discipline them. Many schools are not doing this,” Saju said.
“My call to all the principals is that we can manage if we institutionalise all the policies instead of waiting on inspectors.”
He said some schools, including Gerehu Secondary, had an academic review committee which identified poor-performing students and helped them out.
“The bottom students can always pull down the average students so we organise special remedial lessons for them,” Saju said.
He said teachers’ performances were also improved based on appraisal.
“We give them performance-based duty statement to see if they are performing the given duties statement,” Saju said.
He said school policies were also important.
“Every department should have a policy like teaching lessons deadline, evaluation of teaching methods, how frequent assignments should be given and other aspects to be self-reliant.”