In the Absence of Direction, People Will Set Their Own

[Dhurba Shrestha]

In the Absence of Direction, People Will Set Their Own

It is difficult to maintain consistency and focus in any issues when
there is absence of direction. Normally peole set their own way to
overcome the bad situation. In the context that the public schools
have lost their faith to provide quality education, the Quality
Education Movement in Ganesh Secondary School has provided a forum of
discussion. We as education practitioners often find it difficult to
deal with situations that are outside our normal routine. Students,
too, are beginning to feel the stress of change and unpredictability.
What better opportunity to write about the power of setting direction
and maintaining focus?

Government and community people have maintained some order in the face
of an uncommon situation. By this time; few of the schools have
started teaching in English. The private-public partnership has
brought private investator close to government however the boarding
schools have denied to pay the tax to government. Still, the
government teachers and deo personnel demoralise such public schools
who start teaching in English and started private-public partnership.
This chaotic, confused and mislead situation has created a new
circumstances in education system in Nepal.

As leaders of Continuous Improvement, it’s easy for us to assume that
the direction we set at the start of an endeavor will be consistently
followed. After all, we are working with professionals who have been
doing this for a long time and who are focused on improving the state
of education. However, just throwning a new scenario, in the absence
of direction, we as adults are going to create our own route. Some
will head straight down the road while others will veer off on a side
road or pull over to the side. As leaders, we must routinely remind
people of the destination in an attempt to reduce confusion and
maintain focus on the goals for reaching it, particularly in the face
of change and unpredictability.

How Do We Respond When Our Systems Aren’t Working?

In the Absence of Direction, People will Set Their Own. “How do the
students respond?” and “How do the adults respond?” These are
excellent questions that I thought warranted some discussion.

Clearly, paying attention to how students respond to our processes is
critical to the success of improvement efforts. That valuable feedback
provides us with evidence that our efforts are – or are not – having
the desired impact. Continually asking ourselves how our students are
responding to our efforts puts the focus where it needs to be – on the
stakeholders.

Perhaps of more importance is the question “How do we respond when our
current systems do not produce the desired outcomes?” It’s easy to
find a system that works for us and continue to use it because we have
seen results in the past. However, frequent feedback from our students
(and other stake holders) may dictate that we adjust our systems on a
regular basis to meet their needs – not ours – at the time. In my
experience, the idea of making paradigm shifts is, to say the least,
uncomfortable for people. I’ve also learned over time that being taken
outside our comfort zone from time to time is what makes us grow and
reach for something better.

How comfortable are you with your current systems and how do you
respond when your systems aren’t producing the desired results?

Dhurba Shrestha
Ganesh Secondary School