The ManicaPost
Dr Tennison Mabuya and Freedom Mutanda
THE moment an excellent administrator retires or is redeployed elsewhere, it appears that the institution of learning returns to its baby steps, and stakeholders have to wait for decades to see the school returning to the top of the pile.
We have observed for some time now, and the observations seem to be confirmed by what happens in most reputable mission schools when high achievers and long serving school heads leave.
Mr Peter Muzawazi did a marvellous job at Marist Brothers High School in Nyanga.
He made the school a giant in academics and sports during his stay there.
It was during his tenure as head that Marist Brothers shone in sports and it became a nursery of soccer talent.
Gift Mudangwe and Patrick Chapoterera easily come to mind; he made them household names.
The school was a shining beacon, not only in Manicaland, but nationally when it came to high academic and sports achievements.
The school became the envy of many as parents and guardians alike scrambled for their children’s places there.
It became a dream school for youngsters as they were moving towards secondary education.
The school was always among the top of the then Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) top schools’ rankings at both O-and A-Level.
When the educationist par excellence left, the once shining star has taken a slumber.
The questions are: Was the magic with Mr Muzawazi? Was he running the school single-handedly with no grooming of possible successors, or is it that those who were being groomed never bothered?
Is it to do with Responsible Authorities (RA) of some of these mission schools who arrogantly and adamantly pursue individual interests at the expense of service delivery? Your guess is just as good as ours.
Mr Frank Chigogwana-Mlambo’s headship of Mt Selinda High School in Chipinge made the institution, not only a giant to reckon with, but a beacon of excellence.
The school, too, became a dream school for all pupils in the district and beyond.
Selection of forms one and five places became a headache for the administration since thousands of pupils would throng the school when it could only accommodate a few hundred.
When he finally left, the kind of enthusiasm and scrambling subsided. The million-dollar question is: Was he the talisman of the school?
A more recent one is Mr Moses Mukoyi of St Faith’s High School.
This educationist left a legacy that those who succeeded him enjoyed for some time.
His stay at the school earned the boys the tag, ‘the Bulls’ which metaphorically means they emasculate those who are around them.
The school’s academic achievements were and are still among the best, but current happenings there are a writing on the wall for what the future of the school holds.
Apparently, things seem to be falling apart at the school.
Having cited these handful school heads and what they managed during their years of unparalleled educational service to the nation, their successors had a torrid time in fitting in their shoes.
Why?
Was it because their shoes were too big?
Were there some people throwing spanners?
Was it inherent within the successors to fail to rise to the occasion?
Are Responsible Authorities responsible?
All these questions call for an honest and robust research into the problem at hand by those who care about the education of our children.
The findings of such research will then inform policy for the betterment of our education, especially mission-run education.
Succession in schools is not in the same mould as in politics for the Responsible Authorities and the ministry manage the process.
Our humble submission is that mission schools should rotate heads so that when there is eventual retirement, one of the heads in the pool, would make a seamless transition into the top post.
We cannot discount the fact that some heads are inherently high achievers; at the same time, mediocrity creeps in the moment the church authorities fail to manage the transition process.
To illustrate, there was a time Mt Selinda High School nearly collapsed owing to church politics which somehow died down in recent years.
Of late, the Anglican Church is hell-bent on privatisation of its schools with observers asking whether they waited for the doyen of education, Mr Moses Mukoyi, to retire before making such Waterloo pronouncements.
Is the church riding on Mr Mukoyi’s success to force down the throats of people the idea of privatisation?
More research has to be undertaken as to how to manage the transition from an excellent administrator of a school to a new dawn which has hesitant steps in the wake of the likes of Messrs Mukoyi, Chigogwana and Muzawazi.
The above is not by any means an exhaustive list, but it is just exemplifying how far schools were unable to keep the momentum going in the aftermath of a head retiring after many years at the helm as the school went through unprecedented success on many fronts.
