6.3 Causes of unethical behaviour among some principals and educators
6.3.5 Inadequacy of guidance and training offered to principals and teachers
The majority of participants concurred that there is dearth of in-service training of the school principals and teachers. They felt that the much-needed training to acquaint principals mainly
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those newly appointed was non-existent. Numerous dilemmas that are infesting township schools are as a result of principals engaging in a trial and era method as they lead their schools.
Participants felt there was nothing concrete that the Department of Education had done to empower the newly appointed principals to deal with day-to-day challenges or dilemmas they face in their workplace. This is what Mrs Thobela from Iphothwe Secondary had to say:
The Department is failing us as teachers. Corporal punishment was abolished, and no training was offered to principals and teachers to deal with unruly learners. Not that alone, curriculum changes occur with every newly appointed Minister of Education. However, teachers and Principals are given a one day or two-day workshop on the curriculum delivery strategies. With Alternatives to corporal punishment, nothing happened to empower teachers, no workshop I ever attended in that respect.
(Mrs Thobela, Post Level 1 educator of Iphothwe Secondary school)
Miss Mseleku shared similar sentiments as she posited that:
What I can tell you is that there are workshops that are conducted by the Department of Education intended at developing teachers I will assume even principals because sometimes our principal will leave school to a workshop or meeting. However, to directly respond to your question, workshops are seldom convened to and they don’t focus much on matters affecting us like dealing with learners’ behaviour that pushes us to resort to corporal punishment.
(Mrs Mseleku, Post level 1 educator of Iphothwe Secondary School)
Meanwhile, Mr Mnguni, principal of Intuthuko Secondary shared similar sentiments about the level of in-service training offered to teachers and Principals. This is what he shared:
There is nothing that I would say I personally remember offered by the DoE to embower me in executing my duties as the principal. I can say I was fortunate to have ELRC document I received long ago from my previous principal and it was not unpacked for us as teachers by then. We were told that it contains important policies. So, it helps me now in guiding teachers mainly Employment of Educators Act 76 of 1998 and SASA 84 of 1996. Worth noting in relation to your question, not much time is allocated for workshop on ethical leadership.
(Mr Mnguni, principal of Intuthuko Secondary school)
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Similarly, Mr Ndlovu, the principal of Iphothwe Secondary lamented that he cannot recall being invited to a workshop as a newly appointed principal: This is what he had to say:
I do not think I was properly inducted by my Circuit Manager as my supervisor.
Honestly speaking I don’t think I was inducted. In my case, it was a matter of jump in a swim; I had to learn as I was moving along. Networking with senior principals I knew that were good in leading their schools. I don’t remember a workshop where I was called as a newly appointed school principal and find myself with other newly appointed principals.
(Mr Ndlovu, principal of Iphothwe Secondary School)
Consistent with the latter assertion, Mr Pelepele averred that:
Believe me, there is no specific workshop or induction workshop I remember that was called with the view to equip me as the principal who has been newly appointed. Instead principals are caused to embark on trial and era method. There is no induction or on-going mentoring for school principals, they learn along the way of their practice.
(Mr Pelepele, the principal Ikhethelo Primary School)
Congruent to the latter assertions, Mhlophe had the following to say:
Unfortunately for me I cannot recall being invited to a workshop where I was inducted by the Department of Education on ethics and ethical leadership.
Workshops that I attended were related to subject that I teach. Content workshops which will be run from 12h00 to 15h00 are the workshops that I can tell you I have attended.
(Mhlophe, Post level 1 educator of Ikhethelo Primary school)
Ms Ngcobo shared similar sentiments with other participants as she argued that:
A principal friend of mine ones told me that principals don’t run short of money.
They always claim from the school coffers. If you make proof available anything is possible. I use my car to run Department errands and there is no money put aside for me to service my car. I don’t steal but I take what is rightfully mine. I cannot spend my children’s money to do the work for the Department.
(Mrs Ngcobo, post level 1 educator of Zakhele primary School)
126 Similarly, Ms Thandi had the following to say:
To be honest with you, not that I am promoting or encouraging corruption, but generally money is tempting. There are times where one is broke and if there is money one is looking after, there is a temptation to use it and as you know to pay back money spent is difficult. It is worse when there is nobody to put pressure on you to pay it. I think that is what happens with some of the principals who get tempted to spend money that belongs to the school.
(Ms Thandi, post level educator from Intuthuko Secondary School)
There was consensus amongst the majority of the participants that there is inadequacy of in- service training offered to both educators and principals to equip them to do their work ethically. The principals’ role in school is to act on behalf of the Department of Basic Education.
Therefore, their actions are supposed to reflect the aspirations of the Department of Basic Education. The policies that promulgate training of educators, such as IQMS, are not properly implemented in schools; as a result, there is no in-service training that empowers educators and school principals. Participants believe that principals and governing bodies have a mandate to formulate school policies that they themselves do not conform to. Most of the schools in the township have superficial policies which in some schools are even designed by the outside bodies for those schools, thus not speaking to the contextual factors within and around the school.
The findings suggest that principals and teachers are not exposed to any form of in-service training regarding their new positions. Instead, principals need to find a way by themselves to cope with the day-to-day challenges they encounter as they do their work. It is worth noting that, although there are documents with the policies that pertain to principals’ work, no guidance is offered to make them have full understanding of those policies. Moreover, principals are expected to craft policies themselves and guide the school governing bodies in the policy formulation process, despite their own deficient knowledge, hence flimsy policies are produced and not well communicated to the relevant stakeholders. The in-service training is not adequate to solve the ethical dilemmas that are obtaining in schools. The expectation that school principals are supposed to act as role models is undermined when principals are not leaving up to the dictates of departmental policies.
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Chetini and Shindika (2017) opine that the pervasiveness of unethical behaviours by principal and educators in workplaces is due to lack of education and in-service training. Sama and Shoaf (2007) posit that, for in-service training to be significant and relevant there is a need to understand the drivers for ethical lapses in workplaces. The latter corroborates the views of Brown and Trevino (2006) and Fulmer (2004), who state that ethical lapses need to be understood and addressed given the nature of the spread of this behaviour throughout organisations. The scandals obtaining in various organisations indicate that the need for education of principals is becoming imperative (Ciulla, 1995). Scholars including Trevino and Brown (2006), Soma and Shoaf (2007), Mayer, Kuezi, Bardes and Salvador (2009) opine that ethical lapses are ubiquitous and are a concern, as the integrity of principals is brought into question. Messick and Bazerman (1996) and Yukl (2010) posit that principals face numerous dilemmas and potentially explosive situations, in which they have to make decisions that can prove harmful for the organisations or to others, yet they are not properly empowered to face these daily challenges through in-service training. Sadly, owing to their power, principals are regarded as role models and more often than not they are caught napping. Shapiro and Stefkovich (2005) state that, when principals engage in distribution of resources, the process need to be moral and sensitive, which is often not the case as some of them view it as an opportunity to self-enrich.