Career: What really makes a school great?

Students of Alliance Girls High School celebrate Valentine’s Day with flowers presented to them by their parents. Great schools have parental and community support. [File, Standard]

Last week’s article on the new Safaricom CEO and whether the school you go through matters elicited lots of responses. The surprising non-respondent was Peter Ndegwa himself.

One high school teacher argued that to produce more Ndegwas, we need more schools like Starehe and equivalent. So what makes a great school? We seem to have spent too much time answering the question on what makes a great corporation.

One is a great leader, the correct name for the headmaster - who prefers to be called principal. Ask any alumni proud of his or her school, they will remember the headmaster. The success of great headmasters like Edward Carey Francis or Geoffrey Griffins had a lot to do with the free hand they had in running the schools. From admitting students to discipline, they had their leeway.

The modern headmaster is under siege from politicians, parents, ministry and students. How many headmasters are suffering from high blood pressure? We could ask how many are so selfless that they avoid even marriage and dedicate their lives to the next generation.

Most great head teachers had long tenures and set up elaborate succession plans. Mr Francis, a former Oxford don, was in Alliance for 22 years. Mrs Wanjohi was at Kenya High School for 22 years, Griffins was director of Starehe for 46 years! 

The government curiously decided eight years is long enough to head a school and deputies should not succeed their bosses. If a school is performing why transfer the head teacher? In view of school traditions who is better placed to succeed the headmaster than his deputy?

Closely related to principals is the board of management. How are the members selected? How many really oversee the head teacher? How many add value to the school management? How diverse are the boards? 

Two is traditions. Great schools have traditions that bind alumni together. They might appear bizarre to non-alumni. A good example is a tie test at Alliance; you got a tie after passing a test on the history of the school.

That is why great schools prefer their alumni as head teachers. Unfortunately, most great school’s alumni rarely become teachers. One hopes that regulations from the Ministry of Education take cognizance of school traditions.

Great schools have prominent alumni who inspire current students. There is something magical in a CEO or a Cabinet Secretary visiting as an alumni and reminiscing about his dorm or class. Which schools did the current members of the Cabinet go to?

Location matters too. Why are the original 17 national schools mostly located around Kiambu? Distance has discouraged lots of children from taking up their places in the newly promoted national schools. Parents prefer schools not far from their work places. Never said loudly, the post-election violence in 2007 dissuaded many parents from taking their kids far  from home.

International and private schools too, are very location-conscious, just like other businesses.

Great schools have enriched curriculum that could include foreign languages and a choice of other subjects like music or fine art. Such diversity of curriculum allows students to discover self. Some schools even teach Latin and Mandarin.

I recall my classmates taking Science and French in high school. Imagine the leverage French gave them as engineers in Francophone countries later in life.

Great schools have a  religious or philosophical anchor. Most in Kenya have had religious affiliation. For Starehe, though there is a chapel, doing good to the society seems to be the overarching principle.

Great expectations

Such schools imbibe their students with great expectations. Students graduate with the confidence, a greater asset than good grades. They leave believing they are made for greater things in life, to be leaders, innovators, captains of industry or even political leaders.

Great schools have parental and community support. They see the school as their own. They come for meetings, do volunteer work and keep up with the school, in good days and adversity. That is the soft underbelly of our schools; they have no link to communities. I have asked, how many children from Kuraiha Primary School that shares a wall with Mang’u High School get to Mang’u?

Great schools are diverse in gender, race, nationalities, socio-economic classes and even religion. Some even have exchange programmes to increase diversity which improve on creativity.

Great schools have resources, from land to finances. When government funding is not adequate, they raise funds from alumni or well wishers. How many Kenyan schools have endowment funds? The Starehe model has well-endowed parents subsidising the disadvantaged. This also increases socio-economic diversity.

Great schools are built on meritocracy. Check the great and once famous schools; their decline is likely to be attributed to death of meritocracy where admissions were no longer based on student performance but other undefined criteria.

Finally, great schools are built over time; they are not factories that can be built overnight or fabricated. It takes time and patience to build a great school. Sadly, it takes a very short time to destroy it.

One question occupying my mind is how CBC will affect great schools. Will they accommodate both junior and senior high schools? Will junior high be part of primary schools?
Great nations including superpowers are built on a foundation of great institutions including schools. Our no-longer-young nation cannot be an exception.

- The writer teaches at the University of Nairobi