Teaching only during the time specified by the Ministry of Education cannot produce peak performance in KCSE.
The schools we lionise as veritable academic giants expand learning time. Teachers who post impressive performances do not subscribe to the silly slogan: Teach and go home.
Instead, teachers we glorify and magnify as top achievers create more rapport and contact hours with learners.
In a larger sense, teachers expand learning time when they avail themselves of remedial lessons and set aside ample time for a one-on-one consultation.
Ideally, peerless performance is realised when the three stones in the hearth of the school go the extra mile.
These three stones used to support the academic pot include teachers, students and parents.
For teachers to expand the learning time, it is incumbent upon Principals to explore wonderful ways to implore parents to play their part.
Consequently, expansion of learning time means that teachers focus on the nuts and bolts of remedial lessons, which should come either early in the morning, late in the evening or at weekends.
In most cases, tutors get enthused to attend a remedial lesson when a stipend is appended to it.
If parents stand to understand the notion of going the extra mile, they will pay school fees on time.
They will also contribute money to act as extrinsic motivation to teachers to do more.
After all, through sheer labour of love, some teachers who stay outside the school compound sacrifice to arrive early and leave late.
I want to reiterate: If money for remedial is there, Principals should express kindness towards teachers who are the core cogs in curriculum implementation.
Again, if the money for motivation is not there, teachers should not hang their harps and stop to sing with symphony and harmony.
A teacher who understands the nobility of the teaching profession is not just motivated by some meagre amount of money, but he or she understands that no one has ever done something passionately and ended up sleeping in the trenches of poverty.
Dear reader, teachers are aware that there are individual differences in learners.
It means, that in a typical classroom, students do not grasp content at the same rate. We have those who are above average, average, and below average.
Therefore, in best academic practices, teachers should explore stupendous strategies for attending to all kinds of learners.
With the crash programme in place caused by the re-organisation of the school calendar disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic; Principals are piling a lot of pressure on teachers to meet the target set on when the syllabus should be complete.
With this swift rush, most students cannot have a good grasp of the syllabus content without extra teaching.
Remedial lessons enable teachers to polish pale parts.
In-depth input in remedial lessons props up the performance of weak learners.
During remedial, preceptors teach forward and teach backwards.
Forward means they race up like sprinters to complete the syllabus. Backwards means, they decide to re-teach some areas.
Finally, when teachers focus on remedial lessons as a way of expanding learning time, they should strive to steer clear.
Apart from using that extra time to meet syllabus objectives, they should use it to focus on areas students have performed poorly in exams, and the data from the examination analysis reports should take centre stage.
Teachers should address topics students have requested.
Conscientious concentration should go to the Table of Specification or what is called the Test Blueprint.
Teachers should use the time to address areas pointed out in the KNEC reports.
Author and trainer
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
