Ten things School Administrators should do to retain their Staff
I have taught over a seven-year spell (excluding homeschooling periods) and I understand what it means to be a teacher. I also understand a lot concerning how most school administrators run their schools all in the name of trying to make their schools or their learners the best. I have also witnessed the manner in which some schools have chosen to please parents just because the education system is now a massive business enterprise.
I made some decisions to leave the places I taught for reasons which were mostly personal but there were some other factors which did not help the cause of the schools I left. Some of the other reasons resonate with any former colleagues I have who might be reading this or someone somewhere who shares something similar whether you are teaching in Nigeria or elsewhere. These things are peculiar to teachers and the teaching profession these days that some just humph and move on.
School administrators on their part have huge roles to play in retaining their staff. Their staff here could be in general terms but in most cases, this covers the teaching staff who will always have stories to tell about wherever they worked in the past or where they currently work and what they wished to change or have changed by the decision-makers of their individual workplaces.
I have proposed ten things school administrators should do to retain their staff. This is for the reading pleasures of school administrators, parents, teachers, the Education ministries and individuals who have concern for teaching, education and teachers’ welfare.
The list is in no way exhaustive but it covers the major areas teachers will relate to. So, enjoy the read:
- Make them feel accepted and wanted especially before parents and their learners:
In one of the schools I taught, I witnessed separate incidents of a teacher and a collective unit of teachers get criticized in front of parents and students. This is wrong on all levels. The teacher is like every other kind of human being and does not deserve to be treated like a sinless being. Teachers make even obvious and avoidable errors but it doesn’t mean that they can’t learn from such mistakes. If you have to dress them down, do it in private and not in front of the parents of the learners or the learners themselves.
Even if you have to criticize them, do it respectfully and in private. They have egos too and they demand that they be respected like everyone else even though respect is a rare commodity for teachers these days. It is what the parents and the learners see the school administrators dishing out that they in turn give to the teachers.
Teachers should have a voice within the school system. They should feel like partners with the school administration and join hands to move the school forward. If they are treated right, they will do alright. It is how you make someone feel about themselves that could influence how they react to certain things. Some teachers could become aggressive towards parents and their learners from how you treat them.
It is advisable that as a school administrator you make the teachers feel accepted within the system that they operate. Make them feel wanted. Make them feel important to the system and stop telling them they do not matter or that they are dispensable. This could limit the effort they put into their work and productivity will drop, leading to a number of karmic effects.
2. Increase Teachers’ Salaries based on the nature of the Economy:
Money is important to every professional. Some of the teachers could work basically for the money while others could count passion over and above the money but all the same, it is important that school administrators consider what they pay their teachers.
Teaching is already a tedious job and just like some other professions, it should be treated with utmost respect. The pay should reflect the importance of the work that teachers do inside and outside of the classroom.
The economy does change and we have the recession in the mix as well. It is more important to consider these things and make sure that the teachers in your school do not have issues paying their rent, taking care of their health or those of their dependents. Give them salary raises and watch them work. The worst thing any school administrator would do is to be a salary-delaying individual and yet demand that the teachers put in their best efforts to bring glory to their schools — sorry, this is not the Stone Age! Teachers work and should be paid; after all, most teachers do not even have insurance to cover many areas of their lives; why then should their salaries be delayed or not be increased?
3. Treat Teachers as Professionals:
In many parts of the world, teachers do not get the respect that they deserve as professionals. It is one reason why you get to see teachers being paid meagre sums and expected to do the work that trumps their pay.
During one of the career days in one of the schools I worked, the students in attendance were asked if any of them wanted to be teachers and not a single hand was raised. The reasons some of them gave portrayed teaching as less of a profession. Some of them believed that what they see their teachers experiencing did not count in the attempts to make them choose teaching as their future profession.
Teaching is a professional job and professionals ought to be treated that way. School administrators should ensure that they lead by example in this case. They should make sure that they avoid demanding too much of their teachers and pressuring them which could break them down.
4. Organize Training and workshops to improve Teachers:
School administrators should not believe that teachers will get better by just being in class with groups of learners every other day. Teachers can become better when they attend training and workshops to improve them professionally and personally. Personal development training and other training or workshops related to their profession and their subjects or functions within the school could be introduced to the teachers and they should be encouraged to participate as well.
In most of the schools where I worked, I had the privilege of attending a number of workshops and training some of which were sponsored by the schools I worked for. Those training helped me become better at the job. That is how important these things are to teachers. School administrators have to find ways around this so that they can easily retain their teachers.
The workshops and training do not have to be elaborate ones or somewhere abroad if the school can’t afford it for their teachers but this should be regular enough for the teachers to be enthusiastic about their jobs each time they think about it or when they talk about it among their friends and family members. It could also be a platform for them to interact with those who share similar interests and jobs with them which could fuel their desire to keep improving.
5. Give Teachers room for Personal Development or Self-Improvement:
As you encourage teachers by giving them opportunities to attend workshops and training, it is important to also give them room for personal or self-improvement. There are professional courses they can undertake and with the support of the school, they will improve their knowledge of their subject areas and then return to the school to put in more efforts based on the experience garnered from such courses. It is also important to encourage your teachers to chase professionalism. Help them know when they should make some decisions to improve themselves and give them the room they desire.
I was to undertake a Masters programme a little faraway from one of the schools I taught but it was difficult to combine both the job and the programme. The school administration was rigid with helping me on that and it contributed to the reason I left. Do not hold back your teachers from improving themselves — even if it entails them leaving your school in the long run, they will cherish your efforts in trying to shape their own lives as they have made concerted efforts to shaping the lives of the children of others. Their peace of mind or happiness is more important than the huge plans of the school because if your teachers have none of the aforementioned, the plans of the school will not work.
6. Let Teachers be involved in Decisions that affect them:
This is an area which many teachers will agree with me. There are some schools where certain individuals either run the show or the show in the school run through. They control how the teachers get what they get and how much of it they get. Some of these people could just be a minor part of the administration but they can be rigid with influencing decisions from the top.
Teachers are not stooges and as much as they should respect you as an administrator, I believe it is important to also consider their opinions when making decisions especially if it will have any effects on them. Do not just hastily decide on what you think they will need for their classrooms, offices or even what they will need as their instructional materials without consulting them. They should have a say in these things because it happened once that the text in English for a particular academic session in a school I taught was unknown till about the fourth or fifth week of lesson. In the preceding weeks, we had to skip topics and taught some topics that did not require the use of textbooks.
There was a school where I taught and I came to the classroom one day and found the classroom empty. I looked around for my students and I got to discover later that they were asked to get their new books from the store. It happened to some of my other colleagues too. I had to create time to teach the topic my students missed on another day. It was an annoying situation and the school administration was responsible for what happened.
I worked at another school where some of the teachers could be asked to make lists of the things they needed for their teaching and after making such lists, they were never consulted on what kinds they wanted and were then provided with substandard materials for use and at the same time mandated to care for such fragile items. That is wrong! If you seek the opinion of teachers, follow it till the end and do not make them feel like dummies.
7. Trust Teachers to deliver if you give them Freedom to operate:
Some school administrators are always nosing about to find faults with the things their teachers do. Some of them even enlist the services of learners to check the teachers in or outside the classrooms and get feedback. Some of the time, the teachers’ colleagues are used for these petty assignments. Those are wrong!
If you have employed a teacher and given them a lowdown on their duties, give them that freedom to work. If you discover anything that needs to be worked on, call them and speak to them in private. They will surely improve. Don’t give teachers duties and less space to freely utilize their brains to carry out the tasks to the best of their abilities. It is not everyone who can work under undue pressure and not the least teachers who have a duty to always multitask whether they are in the classroom or outside of it.
8. Be involved and supportive in Teachers’ personal issues:
It is not every teacher who will let you in on their private lives. Some of them will be overprotective of their private lives if you are a loudmouthed school administrator who could just mention to other staff what another staff told you in confidence. I have witnessed such cases in two places I taught and I was a victim on one occasion too.
There was this occasion when I lost one of my sisters-in-law and I was home for her burial. A couple of days later, I was called to return to work. I was not even given a few more days to mourn her. I returned to the school and I was even issued a query letter which was later rescinded. I did not get the support I needed in that period and it was pretty annoying but I got over it somehow.
In the period of the pandemic, how many school administrators took out time to check on their staff and make sure they were well? There are things that could hamper productivity which could be external and if you study the kind of teachers you have, you should be able to suspect such issues and address them so that they do not affect the teachers’ productivity. Enlist the services of a counselor for your teachers and let them help the teachers get their grooves back when they are down.
Take your time as a school administrator to listen to the teachers in private and also talk with them both as superior and as friend — learn about their classroom successes, challenges and prospects. You will learn a lot from them and even find it easier to deal with issues within your school.
9. Show gratitude for what they do:
Teaching like all professions is not easy to do. It is important to show appreciation to your teachers even for the little efforts they put into making your school and your students better. Some teachers go out of their way to fix things in their classrooms with their own monies which lack regularity or any form of raise. Appreciate them and make them feel they have done the best thing in the world. They are human and with that show of appreciation, they will surely do more.
One of the schools I taught had the habit of not appreciating teachers for their efforts. I did not enjoy the place because of that. I tried to give my best but at the same time I thought about not getting those words of appreciation which could have spurred me on to do even more. I remember speaking to one of my former colleagues who left the school for another one. She told me she felt better at the new school because they appreciated the work they did as teachers and that was even more than anything they could ask for.
School administrators should be able to encourage the teachers with gratitude for their work and also ask the parents via the PTA or PTO to appreciate teachers in whatever form suits the school. I enjoyed some form of gratitude from the PTA and some of the parents while I taught and it was a morale-boosting experience.
10. Organize Extracurricular Activities for Teachers:
I know this one will sound a little funny but it is important that teachers have some time to unwind and also get to know each other more beyond work and the classroom. As a school administrator, help build the confidence of the teachers around you as well as their energy to work by organizing social events in their honour which will help relieve them of the stress at work.
Group gatherings too could increase the manner in which the teachers bond with Management and vice versa. It could also foster positive energy around the work place and increase productivity.
All the places I taught knew my love for sports. It was something that was interesting to me and which I participated in joyfully. Some of my other colleagues led sedentary lives because of the uptight nature of the school administrators most of the time. They lost their enthusiasm for sports or other social events they had interest in — the work they did swallowed those interests.
School administrators need to create periods of recreation for teachers at specific times to improve teachers’ morale and help them function better.
Conclusion
Teaching is a profession which combines coaching learners to become better individuals along with being a parent to the learners. This combined task means that the profession is not easy. Even though there are mixed reactions when the profession is mentioned, it is still vital to every country to have the best brains in the educational system. This may not be the case as the bar has dropped and keeps dropping for several obvious reasons.
It is important that the Government, Educational Ministries, School Administrators, teachers, parents, and students join hands in making the profession better. The suggestions that have been made here in this article are by no means exhaustive and so, I have attached some links which could help with further reading on the issue of teacher or staff retention in schools.
Suggested Further Reading:
