PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
4.3. MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF ECCD CENTRE DIRECTORS
4.3.4 Controlling practices of ECCD centre directors
The fourth research question the study sought to answer was “How do the directors maintain control in their ECCD centres?” Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with directors and board members and document analysis to answer this research question. The findings and analysis are presented based on the following four sub-themes: ECCD outcome control through performance improvement planning, control of ECCD stakeholders’ behaviours and actions, control by strategic ECCD staff recruitment, placement, and continuing professional development, and control by sharing the ECCD centre’s vision, philosophy and values with relevant stakeholders and the use of rules and regulations.
4.3.4.1 ECCD outcome control through performance improvement planning
This sub-section presents findings and an analysis of the theme of ECCD outcome control through performance improvement planning. From the analysis of interviews and ECCD centre improvement plans, the study found that some participants perceived the identification of ECCD centre performance targets, performance dimensions, and systems of measuring performance in their performance improvement plans as mechanisms for controlling the centre's activities. The
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study revealed that in Ghana, the performance of ECCD centres is evaluated at centre, circuit and district levels against the following four quality ECCD indicators: access and participation, quality, management efficiency and pupils’ learning tools. The study revealed that preparing a performance improvement plan implementation budget serves as a financial control mechanism.
Although some participants perceive the preparation of improvement planning as a control mechanism, the study found that the practice seems limited to public centres receiving the governmental Capitation Grant. The following quotes lend credence to the above findings:
As a requirement to qualify for the Government of Ghana’s Capitation Grant, we are required to prepare a performance improvement plan. The grant supports access and participation, quality, management efficiency and pupils’ learning tools. We were given a template for preparing the improvement plan to ensure uniformity. Together with my teachers, the SMC Chairman, and the School Improvement Support Officer, we set targets to achieve for a particular year. We conduct performance appraisals at the centre, circuit and district levels and we identify areas we did well and areas we did not do well, and we all discuss how we can improve on those areas. So, I can say performance improvement planning helps us to define performance dimensions, setting performance targets and embed mechanisms of measuring performance. We prepare a performance improvement plan implementation budget that we spend within, you cannot go beyond it… (P 15: Public Director).
We have an attendance book and we check on a daily basis the time you come to the ECCD centre. At the end of every term, after the terminal examinations, we sit down as staff to look at their performance as staff. Here we do subject teaching, so, let’s say, if in Mathematics, the students score low marks, we ask the teacher what might be the cause, is that you are not teaching them well and we check their exercise books too every two weeks to see if learners are doing well. We also do a little teaching in our homes as teachers. During the speech and prize-giving day, we have a best teacher award and there are packages for deserving teachers as well in all the areas to serve as an incentive to the teachers. So, they work towards that.
So, we have a system of measuring the actual performance and do an evaluation of the actual performance…The introduction of the preparation of performance improvement planning in public centres provides a mechanism for controlling activities at the centres as it involves members of the community in setting targets and monitoring activities of the centres. I must say that the concept is a laudable one, but the irregular flow of the Capitation Grant is affecting quality management of the centre. This means that funds are not always available to purchase some important items captured in the SPIP for ECCD centre improvement. The plans of the ECCD centre through the SPIP can only be effective if money is available to execute the SPIP. Therefore, the quality of public ECCD centres is yet to be seen in terms of improved teaching and learning after the introduction of the SPIP and the Capitation Grant... (P20:
Public Board Member).
…I get both positive and negative feedback from the parents, then from the municipal office ranking. We have a programme with the KG2, USAID learning programme that begins from KG2 to P2 that we have been doing. In that programme, KG2 is doing well. In that programme, at certain times, the kids are expected to identify two letter words, to be able to pronounce it.
They will not get it, to be able to pronounce a two-letter word…. To be able to put the words
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together and pronounce sounds. Then after that, there is another stage, three-letter words.
Pronounce it, write it and mention the alphabets. Yes, there is a programme like that.
Therefore, if you enter KG2 classroom right now, they will be able to read a newspaper for you. You will be surprised. Therefore, with that programme they do assessments. Even the assessment is online. It is the GES curriculum but this one is… how do I say it… a partnership programme adopted from that level, the GES level from Accra….
An analysis of the participants’ comments suggests that embedding performance indicators, performance targets, and a system for measuring performance in ECCD centres’ performance improvement planning appear to provide a sufficient mechanism for controlling ECCD activities, including using financial resources. The findings indicate that ECCD centres’ annual performance appraisal at centre, circuit and district levels seems to serve as an encouragement to control the behaviours of ECCD centres’ role players towards achieving better ECCD outcomes.
Furthermore, the findings suggest that defining ECCD centre performance is crucial since the goals/objectives established inform ECCD role players which ECCD targets are most important to focus on in the Ghanaian context. The analysis further revealed that implementing their improvement plans may be inefficient due to the irregular release of government funds. This finding suggests that insufficient funds could negatively affect the use of improvement plans as an effective control mechanism.
4.3.4.2 Control of ECCD stakeholders’ behaviours and actions
This sub-section presents findings and an analysis of the theme of control of ECCD stakeholders’
behaviours and actions. The data analysis found that most ECCD centre directors perceived using rules and regulations, supervision, monitoring, rewards, and punishment as tools for maintaining control at their centres. Some participants said they use rules and regulations from internal and external sources such as the Ghana Education Service’s code of conduct for teachers, code of ethical conduct, staff handbooks, parents’ handbooks, rules and regulations for children, and others to control the behaviour of their staff, parents and children. The study further found that participants perceived the Ghana Education Service, the Department of Social Welfare, the Department of Children, the National Inspectorate Authority, the National Fire Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ghana Health Service, and local government authorities as external regulators of ECCD programmes. Participants indicated that the above regulators help maintain control of ECCD centres through periodic inspections, licensing and annual renewal of
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centres’ licenses. Even though most participants complained about the lack of inspection feedback from the above external regulators, they believe their activities provide guidelines for ECCD services provision to some extent.
Furthermore, at some centres, vetting teachers’ learner plans, monitoring and supervising staff, and taking corrective action were perceived as effective control mechanisms. It was found that most centre directors perceived the use of staff attendance books, class register marking, and teacher’s movement books as control mechanisms at their centres. Other control techniques mentioned by some participants were using reward and punishment for exhibiting acceptable and unacceptable behaviour by staff and children. The following excerpts elucidate the experiences of some participants:
We have an attendance book. We sign in and sign out. Then we also have a movement book which we also use to check the movement of the teachers. Then when you look at the Early Childhood level, we fence the area with wire gauze. So, I use to lock that place as soon as lessons begin, then 5 minutes to break, we open it, but there was this instance the kids will say we want to go to the toilet, we want to urinate, so now we don’t lock it any longer, but I make sure the teachers make sure the kids don’t go out running around. We have a standard for the school programme – a standardised curriculum that we use to assess performance. I also vet their lesson plans.I appraise the teachers during the term meeting - when a teacher has done well, we observe and that is done during the end-of-term meeting. I sometimes identify some deficiencies…I make sure the teachers come to school on time, I make sure they do their work very well. If there is anybody that is not trying to cooperate, I build dossiers and when it is about three, I give a written query to the teacher… Everything is spelled out in the staff handbook. We have a staff handbook. We do not whip the children here. We do not use capital punishment here. If the child misbehaves, we prefer you sit the child down individually. Letting the child know how his behaviour is affecting the other children, so if the child is not cooperating, the child is sent to the office… (P9: Private Director).
Yes, we have formal and informal observation. I do the walk through and if I notice something, I jot it down and bring it to a meeting, but sometimes I address it there. We have formal observation where we go in to observe. I observe lessons formally and informally, that is, without you noticing it. I have stopped doing that because I have noticed that when I enter a class, the children’s behaviour is not what they normally show. Therefore, I minimise my interruptions, because with the very formal supervision you cannot get the true picture. Well, as for the cameras, we monitor the system. Sometimes I sit in the office and monitor the system.
Sometimes the teacher is attending to a child at a blind side (sic), so I send to call the teacher.
I also let them do self-appraisal and then students appraise them….So, when I vet their lesson notes, for instance, I sometimes come across some deficiencies. I correct them. At times it is just a minor mistake, so I use red pen to correct them, at times I call them. When I need to address something during a meeting, I address it during meetings. When I see that something is not going well, I make sure I call that teacher to address that issue… (P 13; Private Director).
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We have external regulators such as the National Inspectorate Authority, the Department of Social Welfare, the Ghana Education Services and EPA. Regularly the School Improvement Officer (SISO) comes for supervision, then the Department of Social Welfare also comes to inspect and renew licenses for the 0-3 years programme, so I can say, in a way, they control what we do. My main challenge is that we don’t receive any written feedback from them after inspection visits, then another year they come… (P 11: Private Director).
An analysis of the participants’ comments shows that review of teachers’ learner plans by directors before their implementation, inspection, and supervisionwere perceived by participants as efficient control mechanisms. The findings suggest that some directors control the behaviour of their staff, children, and parents physically or administratively by enforcing rules and regulations. The findings also suggest that some participants perceived rewards for appropriate actions and punishments for inappropriate actions as mechanisms for ensuring action accountability at ECCD centres. The study found these practices to be appropriate to the management principle of administrative control.
4.3.4.3 Control by strategic ECCD staff recruitment, placement and continuing professional development
This sub-section presents findings and an analysis of the theme of control by strategic ECCD staff recruitment, placement, and continuing professional development. From the analysis of the interview data, recruitment of appropriate ECCD experts, placing them at the right level of the ECCD programme, and providing continuous professional development emerged as a common theme. The study revealed that most participants perceived recruitment of qualified ECCD staff, placing them at appropriate levels, providing them with the necessary resources, and ensuring their regular professional development as an avenue for ensuring that quality ECCD service outcomes are achieved. The study found that the lack of qualified ECCD personnel, inappropriate ECCD learning environments, and inadequate play materials and equipment appeared to be significant challenges militating against the efforts of most public centres in achieving their desired ECCD outcomes. The following quotes capture the opinions of some of the participants:
…At the public centres, government is responsible for training and posting teachers, but it is my duty to place the teachers at the appropriate level. I am also responsible for organising in- service training for them. But the challenge is that people were posted from the headquarters directly to the pre-school without any qualification in early childhood education. We need experts who understand how children learn at their various developmental stages, how to assess their growth and development using appropriate assessment methods…In fact, I am
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finding it difficult to control these teachers because they are related to some political figures in government, so they don’t prepare learner plans for me to vet before they teach… (P10:
Public Director).
One way I control my teachers is reshuffling, when necessary, by assigning the right people at places where they can handle classes with competence. I make sure I provide them with the required resources and regular insert (sic). If we identify some teaching challenges, we invite SISO or mostly, the curriculum leaders try to step in quickly. I try to recruit teachers who have a passion for teaching children, I don’t just look at the qualification… (P13: Private Director).
The above comments suggest that some participants perceived the utilisation of strategic staffing, appropriate placement, provision of requisite teaching and learning resources, and professional development as an effective method of achieving the desired ECCD outcomes. This is a good practice that must be encouraged. From the experiences shared by some of the public centres, a lack of qualified ECCD personnel, inappropriate ECCD learning environments, and inadequate play equipment appeared to be significant challenges inhibiting the achievement of quality ECCD outcomes. It can be inferred from the analysis that the strategic staffing, placement, and professional development control mechanisms of directors achieve ECCD programme controls at the input and process levels of the ECCD system.
4.3.4.4 Control by belief systems of ECCD centres
This final sub-section presents findings and an analysis of the theme of control by belief systems of the ECCD centre. The data revealed that some participants perceived encouraging and inspiring ECCD centre role players through centre’s norms, values, and traditions to attain control informally. The participants indicated that when ECCD centre staff have emotional ties with the ECCD centre and its mission and vision statements, core values, and philosophies, it may help shape the centre’s culture. The following quotes illustrate the opinions of some participants:
… I make sure things that are supposed to be done are always done. We always want to achieve the best, so we make sure teachers always achieve that goal. The mission and vision of the ECCD centre is boldly written everywhere for everyone to see so we maintain discipline and we are all working hard to achieve that. At staff meetings, we remind ourselves about the mission and vision and our philosophy…. (P7: Private Director).
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…our mission and vision are always stated in our performance improvement plan so that we can communicate it to all the key stakeholders. We discuss this plan with staff, parents, and the education district. We enforce our code of conduct. In my own way, I motivate my staff and parents so that we can live up to our expectations. So, with this we try to establish some culture within the centre that all of us try to follow… (P11: Private Director).
… I must say that for now we don’t have our mission and vision written anywhere but we follow GES rules and regulations. We are mature and understand what is required of all of us. I am always on the teachers, supervising their lessons, vetting their learner plans. We have GES codes of professional conduct for teachers, so, we go by it. I will try my best to write a vision and mission, core values and philosophies for my centre and make it known to my staff and parents… (P5: Public Director).
An analysis of the participants’ comments illustrates that in maintaining effective control through ECCD centre culture, codes of conduct can be employed to assist ECCD centre role players in understanding how they should act. This finding shows that through codes of conduct, directors indirectly communicate information on the ECCD centre’s quality of services, staff and children's safety, and ethical principles to the staff.
Furthermore, the study revealed that ECCD centre control mechanisms seem to be based on the ideas of shared and internalised cultural values, norms, and expectations that guide the work of ECCD staff. The finding demonstrates that using the ECCD centre cultural control mechanism aims at ensuring that all centre members have an implicit understanding of the values and beliefs that define the limits of appropriate behaviour within the centre. In addition, it can be inferred that the ECCD centre’s values reflect how directors understand its overall strategic mission and vision of an ideal future, as values and attitudes seem deeply rooted in the ECCD centre’s culture.
The finding also suggests that participants adopting culture as a management control technique seems to be a step in the right direction. The reason is that the approach seems to have the potential to provide a sense of community with shared values, traditions, and obligationsthat contribute to normative patterns and norms of social interaction, which supports, and partly substitutes, other control mechanisms in the ECCD centre. The next chapter will discuss the findings in relation to existing literature and the development of a contextual ECCD centre management model.
141 4.4 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
Analysis and interpretations of the study’s findings are presented in this chapter using data from the interviews and document review. Four key themes emerged from the data. These are:
planning practices, organising practices, coordination practices and controlling practices of ECCD centre directors. Although the findings from the analysis revealed that ECCD directors put a lot of effort into managing their centres, the information gathered from the literature, interviews, and document reviews also suggested that ECCD directors are confronted with numerous challenges in their efforts to apply basic management principles at their centres. The identified challenges that were brought about by ECCD contextual factors, included but were not limited to ECCD directors’ inadequate knowledge and skills in principles of management; lack of technical support from district education offices to support inexperienced directors during planning; lack of active engagement of key external and internal ECCD stakeholders in the management process; lack of utilisation of enablers of effective and efficient management functions at the inputs, process and outputs phases of management. Other challenges included inadequate utilisation of external planning inputs, lack of use of varied data sources for planning, inadequate mobilisation of resources, and support from the ECCD community/environment.