Leadership & Management in improving NSC Results discussed at Seminar

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The Educational Leadership, Management and Policy (ELMP) Discipline in the School of Education recently hosted a seminar that investigated the implications for leadership and management in improving the National Senior Certificate (NSC) results. This was critically analysed by prominent KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) district officials Dr Perumal Naicker and Mr Nhlanhla Mngomezulu.

The seminar focused on the 2014 NSC results that showed the province’s results had declined from 77, 5% in 2013 to 69, 7% in 2014, placing KZN in the eighth spot out of the nine provinces in the country.

In light of the declining results, the ELMP Discipline saw the need to create a platform for engagement with various stakeholders on practical issues affecting education provision.

This is one of many events being hosted by the School of Education to provide a space for debate and dialogue on what various stakeholders are doing to turn the tide and enhance the quality of the learning experience offered to learners in schools.

Dr Naicker and Mr Mngomezulu - both graduates from UKZN, discussed with teachers and students what they were doing to address the situation by highlighting the strategies that Districts have in place to improve NSC results. Also discussed were the concrete actions Districts and schools have regarding NSC results and the overall role that District and School Leaders were playing in turning the tide.

Mngomezulu stated that they have a threefold strategy that incorporates the Circuit Management Centres, Secondary Schools and general Education and Training. He emphasised that both Grade 10s and 11s should be treated as if they were in Grade 12  so as to inculcate the importance of excelling academically. 

‘We’ve noticed that some schools aren’t utilising the workbooks provided. This situation should change and the workbooks be used in daily preparation. Each school must have an Annual Academic Improvement Plan. Schools should not be preoccupied only with administrative tasks but be focused on continual monitoring and implementation of the curriculum.’

He singled out teachers who hid behind the notion of “extra classes” as a means for them to complete the syllabus on time. ‘As teachers, you should be conducting extra classes as subject intervention strategies and as a way of improving learners’ understandings of a subject better and to provide feedback sessions,’ he said.

His colleague, Dr Naicker emphasised that the core business of schools should be teaching and learning. ‘In this country there is a fixation on Matriculation results. The Department of Education produces more policies each year but there is less activism on the ground to improve on our NSC results. There are ill-conceived projects, the same number of teachers, an increase of learners and the mushrooming of independent schools,’he said.

He said that the Department of Basic Education had varying degrees of success in the form of scholar transport, providing meals and even the exemption of school fees but Naicker believes that schools are becoming consumed with daily operational tasks and have moved away from quality education.

With teachers and ELMP students at the seminar, Naicker told them that they needed to cultivate a good attitude and become agents of change at schools. ‘Convert these policies into action and take into account local specifics. These policies are there to support you, develop that leadership capacity and establish a culture of teaching and learning.’

He noted that stakeholder ownership is important and that schools should strengthen partnerships with the respective communities in order to achieve better results.

The ELMP Co-ordinator Dr Siphiwe Mthiyane believes the inaugural seminar is important. ‘This was a tangible, structured mechanism in which our postgraduate students are exposed to real life debates on educational leadership and management issues relating to education,’ he said. ‘In this exercise we shared ideas as the University community with colleagues inside and outside the University. An attempt is being made to integrate theoretical and practical perspectives for our students.’

‘Outcomes for the Seminar’, said Mthiyane, entailed obtaining insider perspectives about what can work in addressing the current situation.

‘Generating ideas is our main focus rather than anything else at this stage.’

The seminar further explored other issues such as the feasibility of the strategies they have embarked upon given various complex dynamics on the ground with stakeholders such as teachers, parents, learners and teacher unions sharing their opinions on the same issues of Grade 12 performance.

English teacher at Gugulesizwe High School and ELMP Masters student Mrs Yasmeen Malik believes that the seminar gave her the opportunity to pose questions on curriculum evaluation and has equipped her to handle her curriculum matter better. ‘Listening to the strategies on how we can assist and improve on our results has motivated me to go back to my Matrics and incorporate these ideas into my classes.’

PhD student and Chief Education Specialist for Teacher Development in the Umlazi circuit Ms Boshiwe Magubane stated that she is aware of the challenges associated with improving NSC results and in turn welcomed the seminar, speakers’ opinions and strategies. ‘It is good to know that there are strategies in place that we are all working towards. But there is still a lot more that needs to be done and it all starts with the attitude of teachers’

Melissa Mungroo