APPENDIX I: Declaration to consent of the school principal 2 169
5.2 Presentation of data from the field 96
5.2.2 The causes of school decline of once reputable schools in Zimbabwe 100
5.2.2.4 Low teacher morale, poor attitude of students to learning and
Most of the participants seemed to indicate low teacher morale, poor attitude of students to learning and children’s rights major causes of schools to decline in Zimbabwe. The following quotations are in support of this.
Mr Gushungo, the Head of Department from Umambo High School, highlights the following:
In some cases, teachers are not paid and others are well paid and there is some form of correlation between payment and students performance which is a motive behind the performance of teachers. Of course, there are other reasons such as the attitude of learners. In some cases, even teachers who are not well paid but are committed to their work due to their attitude. We also have students who have
108
a negative attitude towards education so that on its own will lead to their academic performance going down. (Mr Gushungo)
In addition, Mr Gushungo, also on the same matter said:
School decline, it goes hand-in-hand with discipline. In some schools, discipline is well reinforced and in others there is lack of reinforcement on discipline such that pupils if they are not well disciplined they will not be geared towards their academic work. They will be too playful leading to their academic performance going down. (Mr Gushungo)
Also in support, Mr Mabhiza, who occupied the same management position as Mr. Gushungo, said:
The attitude of students especially, that is very common in day schools where most pupils are not concerned about their education especially in Chipinge. After completing their grade 7 they would choose not to continue with their education and to go to South Africa where they will go and get employed, but not all children. Some parents do not even encourage their children to get educated.
(Mr Mabhiza)
From Tagwinya High School, Mrs Chirandu had the following in support of the above school management team members:
These days I feel strongly that there is this rising tide about children’s rights mainly by non-governmental organisations. They have begun the awareness about the children rights. Schools that were once reputable were because of the discipline given to the school children-they were beaten or punished at times.
They could even be expelled from schools but these days children have these rights to do their own thing. They are abusing these rights. They can even take absconding lessons as a right and the teachers might fail to control them because they argue along those lines and they even threaten to call Childline, complaining so that has been a source of problems in many schools. (Mrs Chirandu)
109
Mr Svondo, a parent from Umambo High School, also had the same in mind when he said:
I think what mainly causes school decline in Zimbabwe is that the teachers are not motivated to work, because of their salaries. For the children, there is little motivation to go to schools because of what is happening in the outside world.
You can see educated people like teachers, but what they earn is far less than what somebody who is doing buying and selling in the streets gets. So, if you are a child you would say does education give me what I want in the future which is money or I should just go ahead and start making money anyway because even if I finish my education I will get qualifications but will end up not getting as much money as those involved in self-employment like buying and selling. So, from a contextual point of view, I can generalise this in Zimbabwe. (Mr Svondo)
From Tagwinya High School, Mrs Chuma, a parent identified the same reasons with the above participants when she said:
If you look at how the community is growing and the township has grown these children are occupied with certain things that have nothing to do with school work. Also as a result of the ethanol plant which is situated within the community you will find out those children, parents are busy making money going to the market, South Africa. Sometimes when they are not around the children take over the business by selling in the flea markets and the green market so at the end of the day they make a lot of money making them to see school as something insignificant because they can do without. (Mrs Chuma)
Weitzel and Jonsson’s (1989) model of organisational decline state that school leaders in declining organisations tend to lose their vision and become autocratic. The leaders tend not share decision making and demand quick results from employees (Whetten, 1980b; Greenhaigh, 1983). Teachers who are observant of these difficulties and who are resistant to change, begin to display a reduction in obligation to the school (e.g., increased number of teachers leaving the school, decline in effort, sub-standard performance), which adds to the school’s academic achievement problems in this stage (Weitzel & Jonsson, 1989). The above model supports the view that low morale and motivation of teachers at a school is caused by observations made that
110
the school is in decline. This will further lead to school decline since their effort and commitment to their jobs will further decline translating to poor or low academic achievement in the school pass rates.
Also, in agreement with the above is Kanter’s (2004) model. This model notes that losing streaks begin in response to a sense of failure and failure makes people feel out of control. It is just one more step to a pervasive sense of powerlessness and powerlessness corrodes confidence. When there are few resources or coping mechanisms for dealing with problems, people fall back on almost primitive, self-protective behaviour. Nine pathologies begin to unfold, as an emotional and behavioural chain reaction: Communication decreases; criticism and blame increase; respect decrease; isolation increases; focus turns inwards; rifts widens and inequities grow; initiatives decreases; aspirations diminish and negativity spreads (Kanter, 2004). This shows that the staff would become less motivated and morale would be low, the same would be their attitude towards their work which would also be affected negatively. Consequently, the attitude of the school children would also be affected since the teachers would be paying less attention to them and their work.
Low teacher morale, poor attitude of students to learning and children’s rights have been outlined as some of the major causes of school decline. This was supported by the participants’
responses and also by the two theoretical frames. Weitzel and Jonsson’s (1989), model of organisational decline states that low morale and motivation of teachers at a school is caused by observations they make of the school if it is in decline. Also, Kanter (2004) in her nine pathologies notes low teacher morale leading to school decline through decreased communication, decreased initiatives and criticism and increased blame.