Seemingly, there is always an unusual experience that presents lessons worth sharing. Sometimes last term, in a school somewhere in Muranga County, I was somehow held hostage by the institutional manager.
Since, they had interests of taking the school through a seminar in the near future, she insisted that I should address the teachers for a few minutes. I wondered what I would tell them, that could be of impact within such a short time.
But, upon introducing myself, I fell back to my traditional 2 questions whenever speaking to teachers, especially during their KESSHA Conferences. How many teachers joined the career on their own volation? Secondly, how many teachers ended up loving teaching, while on the job. In the present school, the first question attracted 4 teachers out of 25.
Further, only 4 other teachers ended up becoming passionate about their career, while on the job. This means that about two thirds of teachers in that school are totally dispassionate about teaching. Those statistics are not exciting and have an impact, better addressed when the seminar for the school matures.
More still, we, in the last week of the term got involved in delivering an empowerment seminar, in a School situated in Tharaka Nthi County. We had been informed that all the 300 students will participate in the seminar. What about their 20 teachers? We wondered. The principal indicated that they would not be interested in a students’ seminar.
This became of concern to us, for a school of such student population. As such, while driving to the school, we contacted the principal and made a surprise. We are only 10 minutes to your school and would like to have a 15 minute session with your teachers, if you don’t mind. The principal reluctantly agreed, since she had no Idea of what could transpire.
When we met the teachers, we sought to know how many voluntarily chose the career. Apparently only 2 out of 20 did so. Another 4 ended up becoming passionate teachers, while on the job. In addition, we took them through our unique work ethics moderation exercise, which became a serious challenge to almost all the teachers.
Though the excercise was meant to attract the teachers to the students’ seminar, as is normally the case, the teachers never took interest at all, except the guiding and counselling teacher, who joined the principal in witnessing the empowerment session. The former had however raised an issue after the work ethics moderation excercise.
Have you ever encountered teachers who voluntarily joined the career, but eventually lost passion on the same. “Yes indeed,” I revealed. “Have you ever conducted a research on how these teachers that eventually became dispassionate?” Wondered the teacher.
Me: Well, if you attend the students’ seminar and fail to get answers, then I will consider conducting a research on the same.
So, after the seminar, I sought to know whether the teacher had acquired the necessary answers. Surprisingly, she explained the answers very clearly, based on what she had just learnt from the students’ seminar.
The concern here is that other teachers must have had questions requiring answers, which could have been picked from the students’ seminar. But, they lost an empowerment opportunity after having failed to excel in the work ethics moderation exercise.
Could that explain the importance of our RE-CREATING THE FUTURE TODAY SEMINAR for every school? Your guess is as good as mine. In any case, we have continued being engaged by serious schools, sometimes having around 70 teachers.
Good examples include Njiiri School, Muranga and Ndururumo High School, LAIKIPIA County. Apparently, even those with smaller number of teachers are not left behind. A good example is Bishop Louis Secondary School, Laikipia County that has about 35 teachers.
Interestingly, 4 teachers of Bishop Louis SS, re-joined school for further re- empowerment, after our holistic RE-CREATING THE FUTURE TODAY SEMINAR of June 2021. What about your school? It could similarly benefit like others, isn’t it?
FYI
As shared in the last communication, we are eventually in communication with KNEC Leadership and we will meet soon. The only challenge currently is mutually agreeable engagement dates.
Meanwhile, empowerment of our future leaders plus their handlers too is still ongoing. Our early May 2023 diary comprises engagements in schools situated in the following regions :-
- 10/05/23 Machakos County, Kathiani Sub- County
- 11/05/23, Kiambu County, Thika East
- 14/05/23, Kirinyaga County, Near Kagumo Township
- 15/05/23, Tharaka Nthi County, near Chogoria town – This is 2nd engagement in the same school, since March 2020
- 19/05/23, Machakos County, Mwala Sub-County. Same school that engaged us in February 2020 & Nov 2021
MORE Engagements in schools in the stated neighborhood are also MOST WELCOME!
Rgds
Mwangi Wanjumbi (MKIM)
Personal Empowerment Coach,
Speaker/Trainer Consultant on Strategy, Performance, Change Management and Leadership.
Seasoned Trainer of Trainers,
Competency Based Curriculum-CBC Architect,
Author of 1. KICD approved Career Dynamics in the 21st Century, 2. Living Beyond Survival:No More Tiptoeing in Life
- The 21st Century Student:Are You Creating The Future Today? Also, Retired 5 Year Monthly Strategy Columnist (2013 – 2018) for The SME Today Magazine Phone 254722516210
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