BUHERE: Head teacher as principal mum or dad

"Schools must be places of hope, love and crafting your dreams."  Veronique Genniker

The former principal of Butere Girls’ High School, Mrs Ruth Otieno, instinctively referred to her students as “my girls”.

We might not know or remember this as adults but practically all students look to teachers as substitute parents while at school.

Away from the presence of their parents, they search for someone around them to stand in as their parents—someone who cares for them, who supports them, who gives them hope.

They want someone who loves and affirms them. Someone who, once in a while, can tolerate their indulgences or idiosyncrasies. They want someone who will look at them as a human being—not in the context of the mass of students as a whole—but as that boy or girl with his or her human characteristics, frailties and virtues.

This is what ultimately matters to each and every student. A negligible number of students have the resilience and tenacity to make the most of the worst possible environment and learn. Most buckle or break down under pressure and threat, regardless of their magnitude.

The majority of children are, in terms of the inhospitable environment, vulnerable. They don’t have the capacity to withstand anything that shocks or demeans their sense of dignity.

This is the reason why educational systems such as ours, have taken pains to stipulate learning environments that are friendly to learning. It is the reason why the government has laid down policies, curricula, standards and examinations that all schools must observe. Effective teaching and learning take place in a particular environment.

The physical environment must be safe and clean as a foundation for learning. That means that classrooms, hostels and other places within the school ought to be safe as well as clean for use. Critical as it evidently is, it is not sufficient to determine optimal learning.

The emotional and psychological atmosphere of the school is equally very important in guaranteeing learning.

As we have earlier observed, children go to school with all of their human characteristics, their frailties as well as their virtues. They have dreams, hopes and fears. They march to school every day (for a day school) or at the beginning of every term (for a boarding school), armed with their individual dreams, hopes and fears about life and the future in general.

Away from their parents and guardians, they unconsciously want and look for a surrogate parent or guardian for affection, love, affirmation of their dreams and for counselling and correction whenever they go astray.

Deputy Director for Quality Assurance and Standards Lydia Muchemi argues that the students require moulding at all times. She says teachers who see themselves as role models see children in teenagers and not students in teenagers.

“What is the difference in distinction?” I asked her.

The temptation is to see a teenager as a wild animal to be tamed and not a child to be moulded, she noted.

The implication of all these is that the principal of a school is a kind of principal mother or father. And not simply an instructional head of a school. It is not by accident that students in some schools refer to principals by the affectionate title mum or dad.

Learners under the principal's overall care look to him/her as a principal parent. The rest of the teachers are in effect parents—however youthful some of them might be. All have been thrust into the role of caregivers.

It is the duty of the school principal, as the principal parent, to help the other teachers discharge their surrogate role of parents properly and responsibly.

As an instructional leader, syllabus coverage may easily consume his/her energies and time, causing him/her to forget his/her role as principal parent to the students.

We may have students with the tendency to bully others. We may also—regrettably—have one or two teachers with the tendency to bully students. Such teachers may have a devastating effect on learner interest in academic studies. Students need protection as much from the bullying teacher as they need protection from the bullish (fellow) student.

The reason why the principal, in his/her capacity as the chief mother or father, needs to walk around the classrooms, dining halls and hostels, is that this is a management strategy that reveals so much about the school environment's orientation to learning.

All children have the motivation to learn. The difference lies in the degree of motivation and ability to learn. However, all children can and should be accorded the opportunity to develop their cognitive, emotional and psychomotor powers to the fullest extent possible.

The challenge, as a landmark USA report on Education entitled 'Nation at Hope' observed, “is to ensure that schools provide the relationships and opportunities that optimize every child’s chance to grow, develop, and learn and then to carry those conditions from the school day into the rest of young people’s waking hours”.

The report, commissioned in 2019, by The Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, noted that two-thirds of current and recent high school students agree that attending a school focused on social and emotional learning would help improve their relationships with teachers and peers, their learning of academic material, and their preparation for college, careers, and citizenship.

As the principal father or mother, the school’s Principal has a heavy responsibility: To set the finest climate for authentic learning.

The climate depends on the kind of culture he or she has cultivated. A culture of hope, of care, of respect for diversity. An environment where children (learners) are free to seek help when they are having learning and behavioural difficulties has the potential to ensure the different abilities of the students bloom.

I always discerned this temperament in the former Principal of Butere Girls High School, Mrs Ruth Otieno during my tour of duty at the Butere/Mumias District in the late 1990s.

And the “girls” were evidently excited with her whenever she was around. They saw in her a surrogate mother—not, strictly speaking,  a principal.

Secondary school years is a stage in life when teenagers are searching for their personal identities. American psychologist Erik Erikson argues that this is the stage when children from about 12  to 18 years are exploring their personal values, beliefs and goals.

This is a stage of total confusion and wonderment. Only a caring, supportive school environment can help them to navigate their way. Inability to seamlessly know who they are and want to be and at the same time follow academic studies creates tension and weariness in their souls.

The approach Mrs Otieno evinced in her leadership of a school can greatly help learners pursue their academic aspirations as well as discover who they are without tension or confusion of roles.