Yengema Secondary School (YSS) Stakeholders Workshop

Yengema Secondary School Old Students Teachers and Friends Association (YSSOSTFA)
Workshop held at Yengema Secondary School, Kono, Sierra Leone on Tuesday 12 April 2016
 

Workshop Overview

1 Purpose

1. To engage a variety of the school’s stakeholders in discussions concerning the school and mobilise stakeholder interest and participation in the welfare and outcomes of the school and its students (stakeholders to include students, teachers, governors, parents, members of the local community, local authorities, the parish, other contributors to the school, local and Freetown alumni associations).
2. To identify and discuss problems preventing attainment and other issues at the school, and root causes and their effects.
3. To brainstorm and identify solutions, key objectives and plans of action to be taken by various stakeholders

2 Methodology

A workshop was publicised by email to the school’s authorities and to YOSA Freetown several weeks prior to the visit, as part of a series of activities over several days including an arranged inspection of the school by YOSA-Freetown and YSSOSTFA, discussions with authorities, and inspection of projects and use of assets by YSSOSTFA.  The school was consulted about their willingness to participate in the activity, YOSA Freetown assisted in mobilising the school and added their weight and influence to the request. The activity was planned for after school to give time to inspectors to add encouragement to stakeholders to participate.  The school was requested to inform all stakeholders and invite them. They informed us that they had put out announcements to some groups of stakeholders (including the governors who had been there in the morning but left early) but that not all stakeholder groups had been informed.

The original intention was for at least 20 to 30 participants representative of all stakeholder groups, including junior and senior students. In the event there were about 35 attendees, mostly teachers, approximately 10 to 15 students who were mostly seniors, with two or three parents, some of whom were local YOSA members. An attendees’ register was taken by the librarian. The workshop lasted approximately 2 hours.

Stakeholders were asked to identify (and discuss if they wished) what they felt was the main central problem with YSS, and write this on a post- it note. These were collected by one of the participants and allowed all participants to express their views anonymously without fear of sanctions. After all post-it notes were collected, they were read out and posted on a flipchart page. A pattern soon emerged and the facilitator with the participants, identified 4 problem categories.

Due to lack of time it was not possible to deal with each problem category. The participants were asked to choose the one thing amongst the 4 categories identified which they felt was the central problem at the school. The overwhelming majority agreed on one, "Administration and Leadership".

The participants were then asked to participate in an activity to identify the root causes of the central problem and its effects using the "problem tree" methodology. 

The most vocal respondents were teachers and other adult stakeholders. The students remained silent during the first part of the discussions, which covered a lot of controversial areas and were heated. During these discussions it was possible for the participants to identify and discuss numerous root causes and categorise them into headings and at the same time identify and agree some of the undesirable effects of the root problems. The facilitator then invited the students to participate and give their views. Surprisingly some of the students came forward with very frank views despite being in a room full of teachers. There was some uncomfortable murmuring from a couple of teachers, however the facilitator asked that the students be allowed to give their honest opinions, stating that if the problems at the school were to be addressed and solved, it would require openness and honesty. The teachers consented and the students continued. There was some evidence that some students were speaking up as supporters of the current teachers’ power structure and putting forward what appeared to be pro-teacher pro-school propaganda, however they were contradicted by other students who gave frank views without apparently being worried about recrimination.

3 Results

Participants initially identified the central problem as follows and subsequently agreed on 4 main problem categories;

Responses:

1. Administration and leadership (13 responses)

·         Poor administration, poor teacher relationships

·         Poor leadership

·         Unequal treatment given to teachers by the administration, overloading of teachers by giving him or her more than one subject

·         The administration of the school,

·         Poor leadership, 11 years rebel war

·         Administration of the school

·         Leadership of the school to be replaced

·         The acting principal of the school who feels he can do everything in the school all alone

·         Administrative problems (the school is bigger than the principal as he does all)

·         Poor leadership

·         No delegation of responsibilities by principal

·         Leadership

• Catholic mission

2. Resources (9 responses)

·         Inadequate learning materials like books

·         Sitting accommodation

·         Less amount of teachers for all the subject areas

·         We the students of the school lack of science test practicals with equipment from the laboratory

·         Scholarship facilities

·         Lack of textbooks

·         Good library (ie we do not have enough books)

·         Learning materials

• Teaching materials

Discipline and attitude (4 responses)

·         Indiscipline

·         The attitudes of pupils

·         Lack of interest in education on the part of the pupils

·         Pupil teacher relationship not always cordial and directional

National (4 responses)

·         Educational system of the country

·         Poor wages of unapproved teachers

·         New teachers are not on payroll for some time when they get employed, accommodation for serving teachers

·         Poor wages of unapproved teachers

At the beginning, participants were very keen to point at the acting principal as the sole root cause of the problem of leadership and administration, however as their discussions progressed participants found the problem had a variety of root causes, including themselves.

The participants’ identification of ROOT CAUSES were as follows:

At the beginning, participants were very eager to point to the acting principal as the sole root cause of the problem of leadership and administration, however as their discussions progressed participants found the problem had a variety of root causes, including themselves.

As root causes were identified, participants identified some of their EFFECTS as follows:

As long-standing grievances were aired and the negative results of the pervasive negative culture in the school became clear, most participants expressed some dismay or regret at the undesirable situation and vicious cycle they had helped create or perpetuate.  It was not clear at the conclusion whether the exercise had had enough of a shock effect to encourage the will for sustainable change. There were evidently positive minds present who want to see things improve but they expressed worry about being ridiculed and PHD’ and expressed that their willingness to continue at the school may be limited if things didn't improve. Attainment and exam results were not mentioned by participants although they were implicit in the conversation

The facilitator informed participants that, rather than continuing on to the next step in the exercise (i.e. the solution tree; identifying an objective, solutions to counteract the root causes and identifying desired outcomes), this seemed a good place to stop and reflect on the damage caused to the school and its students by this culture. The facilitator left them to consider whether indeed they wanted to improve things or keep them as they are. The participants were left with the option of completing the converse of the problem tree; i.e. the solution tree, at a future date if they were serious about reversing the trends in the school. Participants expressed earnest intention to do so, however post workshop conversations suggested there was much scepticism that this or sustained change would happen. This could be because of negativity.
There have been reports in April and May of some improvement in culture at the school. The governors have recently taken a bold action to split the school and have each headed by a separate principal, one for the senior secondary school (SSS) and one for the junior secondary school (JSS). There are early indications of a will by governors and the heads to improve discipline at the school, although there are also worries by some that victimisation and power play by teachers may be still be occurring. 

4 Conclusions and recommendations

Objective 1 and 2 were accomplished, objective 3 was not.

It is highly recommended that the positivity engendered by the YOSA and YSSOSTFA visits, observations, discussions and workshop,  should be capitalised on quickly, and a clear message sent to disruptive elements that there is a mood of change and external support for such change. A shake up of governors and recruitment and empowerment of local YOSA is urgent, as are incentives for those positive minded teachers who are actually a positive counter-influence at the school. 

YSS Science Club presentation 12 April

Another Image of Sierra Leone - a Failure to Look

When a person enters a country, their first impressions count. These can be changed by something contrasting, or reinforced by more of the same. So it is with Sierra Leone.

Outside the country the images we see in the general and social media are made up of countless photographs; of politicians and their followers celebrating one thing or another, individuals posing for the camera, people in anti-ebola clothing, ambulances and quarantine centres, war victims, idyllic beaches, beautiful landscapes, shiny happy faces, or horrifically graphic accident victims. There may even be some nostalgic images of wildlife thrown in here or there. But does this photo album give an accurate image of Sierra Leone? As anyone walks through the airport, into the country and outside of Freetown, is this what they see? What we see is what the cameras point at.

As we wander about in our daily lives we usually notice the things that are out of the ordinary, the things we're not used to. In the case of those coming from other countries, the scenes we see in Sierra Leone are very different, and so they'll stand out.  As a child of nine stepping off the plane, I can never forget the warm humid blanket that enveloped me. Stepping off this April I noticed the absence of another childhood memory, the smell of smoked fish mixed with charcoal and permeating the air everywhere. Where had it gone? At 4am in a rickety vehicle travelling from the airport to the ferry along the night road, I noticed the vehicle, the darkness, the heat, the insects, the many huddled shadows of children and women with large bundles sitting by the roadside. Waiting for the ferry I noticed the quiet small queue of vehicles and people milling around outside the gate, sitting around on benches and in their vehicles, and the constant warmth.

On the ferry my senses were overwhelmed by sights and sounds too many to describe. The lasting image was of the dilapidated state of the ferry, overloading, endless delay, the mass of market people treated literally like cattle and risking their limbs and their produce to find a niche on the boat, smells of all kinds, the heat inside and outside of the vehicle and the dirtiness of every surface. Then came the assaulting images of Freetown. Insanity on the roads, a cacophony of sounds, dirt and dust on everything, the bravest pedestrians in the world, every kind of bric-a-brac selling from so many small open shops and laid out on the roadside.  More mad okada motorbikers than you can imagine, with their insanity spreading to their passengers who put their lives in the hands of these outlaws. The yellow taxi drivers; no better, just driving more dangerous vehicles.

Some may say these images are the ingredients that give the city some semblance of charm, although this romantic view is knocked back every few metres by a pungent wave of urine or raw sewage. All those photographs I mentioned before cannot capture the toxic exhaust fumes from countless generators and engines stuck in traffic, they cannot capture the even more toxic fumes of hydrogen cyanide, hydrochloric acid, dioxins and furans released each day across the country from tonnes of burning plastic, or the chronic coughing induced after a few days by breathing in this lethal cocktail. Nor do the images we see portray the decline of morality, compassion and social responsibility, or capture the insecurity of a lawless state, inaccessible healthcare or little social security.

Perhaps it is time to question whether any of this is actually invisible and ask whether the images are there to be seen but are not noticed, do the images portray this decline and insecurity?

Somehow people are able to travel daily past the un-emptied stench of the gutters outside their own houses without noticing them, step past the blue drinking water supply pipes submerged in these stinking gutters without batting an eye. They can drive or walk up unpaved, unmaintained back streets without noticing the bumps or damage to their fine vehicles or sandals, past periodic rubbish dumps filling riverbeds without seeing their danger or wondering where the rubbish ends up, and without smelling the even more lethal cocktail of toxins released by burning plastic. Perhaps that's the reason right there, poster blindness, the denial of danger or personal responsibility, exhibited perfectly by the government and people for months after the first outbreak of ebola and exhibited just as well today by apparently sane respectable okada passengers.  The failure to look, practised at least twice a day by 17 presidential vehicles, countless ministers and civil servants, Visit-Sierra-Leone-dot-com and millions of inhabitants.

I think there are images that portray the decline of morality, compassion, social responsibility and the insecurity of a lawless state. Look up at every hillside and hilltop around the country that has been shaved as bare as a bad haircut and savaged and scarred by a holocaust of flame. Now imagine how they looked covered in lush forest. Do not fail to take a long hard look at the image of your waterless tap and ask what forest feeds the watersheds. Look into every river under the bridges of Freetown, and ask yourself where all this plastic is going to end up? (Perhaps this is a question to ask before you buy the next plastic drink). Visit Lumley's beautiful beach and take a dip in the luxuriously warm waters rich with detritus, plastic and unknown solutions. Look in and smell the gutters outside your front door.  And do not fail to look at what is being done to our land, all over the country.

You can see these images on You Tube: https://youtu.be/F-y3sGyPmYY or on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHskAuGUpi

Sahr O Fasuluku, 1 May 2016

The Price of Development - Photos from Sierra Leone April, 2016