The world is stumbling in darkness from one crisis to another. The educational institutions are not left out. The crises are getting worse and worse and are coming closer and closer to home. From hikes in school fees, inflation, population explosion, hunger, etc., dominate vast areas of the world. So many research papers and termly empirical discussions have been presented and written to boost productivity and assist the government in handling the attitudes of teachers and other employees towards effectiveness and efficiency. Here, there’s no research, but it is an attestation and appraisal of the ongoing efforts in the transformation of public schools in Anambra State. History bears witness that when a man comes to power in Nigeria, the cabals and kingmakers dictate for him what to do, say, or ignore. Some politicians were impeached, thrown out of office, or utterly denied a second tenure because they fell out with their lords or refused to accede to the demands of the oligarchs. The few that Providence brought to power would sometimes resolve to serve the people and transform the society.
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The bourgeoisie, educated and political class, do not send their wards to public schools in Nigeria. Public schools were left to rot and decay, serving the interests of the underprivileged. The internal conflict found amongst imperialists and infiltrators barrages their minds with concupiscence to set the society in disarray and lawlessness for a cheap gain. Heretofore, an amazing future has been set for the school children in Anambra State public schools by the Soludo administration. It’s not just free but a qualitative educational foundation. Non-indigenes, foreigners, have been assisted to navigate the painful, ill-advised post-subsidy administration in Nigeria.
Besides, we must not forget that some came to power to become alcoholics or abuse drugs pending the immunity allowances. Governor C C Soludo has just set sail on a terrain that his adversaries cannot survive in. Nothing can stop the Solution Government from remedying the lapses and unfortunate incidents of the past. Real business people start businesses with no capital. The government has never borrowed a dime, yet new changes emerge daily. Integrity is the glue that holds our way of life together. What our young people want to see in their leaders is integrity, honesty, and truthfulness. What they hate most of all is hypocrisy and phoniness. Good things are costly, and that’s why the government spends taxpayers money on building foundations for future growth.
Therefore, our children are the generations of coming years who will spurn our negligence and idiosyncrasies. Conversely, checking productivity in public schools in Anambra State is all about creating new things and changing old things. Many people in the country would want to receive salaries without working for it. Folks rob Peter to pay Paul in every public institution. Government business is seen as no man’s business. The petroleum industry is in a mess; textiles, steel, mining, and various industries are moribund because the average politician marks their days in office with the amount of looting at the shortest possible time.
Governor Soludo has severally embarked on unannounced supervision through on-the-spot assessment of any primary or secondary school in the state. The Chairman of the Post-Primary School Service Commission (PPSSC), Universal Education Board (ASUBEB), and Zonal Education Officers (ZDE) are tirelessly working to ensure that employed teachers are motivated, incentivized, and passionate about the job given to them.
Most importantly, the evaluation of teachers’ weekly productivity has both qualitative and quantitative measures. The timeline is set every week but supervised quarterly, in mid-term assessments and end-of-year appraisals with continuous monitoring and feedback. The stakeholders in ensuring impactful productivity from teachers are school administrators, the Anambra State Ministry of Education, ASUBEB, local government education authorities, parents, guardians, and students. Despite confrontation with many challenges, the solutions so far are enormous. The government employs the Anambra State-Specific Initiative in tackling low productivity in teachers. Queries, deductions from salary, sanctions, and demotion were some of the measures already in place. The indicators of productivity are seen in student learning outcomes, teacher attendance and punctuality, lesson planning and delivery, classroom management, student engagement and participation, teacher-student interaction, the use of technology and resources, and then continuous professional development.
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We understand that a leader makes meaningful declarations to correct abnormalities. The real creativity in a leader is making things happen by changing fortunes to suit the age and time. The evaluation framework, assessment tools, and development plans are continuously improving the strategies for checking the productivity of teachers in Anambra State. School children in Anambra State do not just learn to read and write; they acquire sellable skills—communication skills, vocational skills, technical skills, and adaptation training. This is for a state that has more than 20,000 teachers, which led to a 50 percent increase in the education budget for 2023.
Obiotika Wilfred Toochukwu; Community Secondary School Awgbu.
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