School Improvement Ideas from a Youth Perspective

Simple Steps for School Reform and Student Empowerment for Girls’ High Schools

Ali Zayaan Shaafiu by: organization4si@gmail.com

Introduction This is a document about some changes and improvements that would be important to bring to high schools (O’ level schools) in the Maldives, with a special focus on all-girls high schools. The ideas included here are ones that will cost very little to implement, will be easy and simple changes to make, and that schools would have the power to make on their own (i.e. not ones that would need specific government approval). They are also ideas that I feel will not only improve the educational standards of schools and help them to implement their resources and use teachers most efficiently, but also ones which address underlying social problems in Maldivian society that can be targeted through schools for youth that will be the future citizens of tomorrow. It is meant not only and not just to produce students who get all As, but to draw up the achievement levels of all students and create students that are inspired, independent, creative and motivated citizens that will be a vital catalyst for social improvement of the entire city and nation as a whole. I see the current school holidays as a good opportunity for reform and improvement in the schools for the beginning of next year, and see an urgent need for this reform and improvement. In this I have drawn from my own experience in school, in Maldives as well as Malaysia. I studied grades 8 and 9 (2005-2006) in Majidiya School, Male’, and then studied grade 10 as well as my two A’ level years (2007-2009) in International Islamic School, Malaysia. From my time in Majidiya I feel I have first-hand experience of many of the realities of secondary education in Male’. In Malaysia, I studied in International Islamic School, a school that was very limited in funds and suffering from administrative problems, where the teachers attempted to instigate several programs and schemes with support from and involvement of senior students (including creating a debate team and getting it participating in national-level competitions, arranging trips for science students to attend Nobel laureate lectures, supporting A’ level students in creating a charity program for an orphanage, etc) to try and create a holistic education and quality school experience in spite of the existing limitations. I feel I have gained some valuable insight and experience on ways to create a motivating and holistic school experience from my years there. While in Malaysia, I also met people from various countries and discussed the school systems, innovations and problems with the schools they went to in Bangladesh, Canada, Australia, etc. In addition to his, I have had discussions with many Male’ friends and acquaintances about what they feel are the problems with their secondary schools, and with them discussed many ideas on how to make things better, improve the academic aspect, inspire students, etc, some of which I have presented here. I hope to present in this report many ideas from a youth perspective, most of which draw both from my own experience in Malaysia as well as a few methods and ideas used in schools from Canada and Australia, combined with my discussions with some female secondary-school students and their explanations of the problems in their schools as well as their inputs on suitable ideas to fix them. I believe that many of these concepts, which would be easy to implement and would cost very little, could help enormously improve the school experience, increase results, make happier and more responsible students, and plant the seed for lasting social improvement. To get details or to clarify anything, I can be contacted by e-mail at organization4si@gmail.com. If interested in implementing these changes, I can provide the presentations etc to inform teachers and staff etc about the changes that need to be brought and how to bring these changes, etc, as well as to provide any other assistance (such as getting movies and books for the library, designing a schedule for implementation, etc).

Summary of Contents This document will talk about the importance of implementing a more holistic approach to teaching in school, of placing responsibility on students, and having a free system of extra-curricular activities and encouraging such activities. It will also discuss new ideas on maintaining student discipline and raising student morale and inspiring students, as well as on teacher improvement and teacher motivation. It also talks about ways of improving the teaching and education itself, by having an efficient system of teaching that both increases student understanding and involvement while preparing them much better for exams. A short summary of the contents follows:

- The importance of easy availability of good reading materials, with good books for the age group that can be mind-opening and relevant, with a sample list of such books attached at the end of the document

- How a reading list program, as exists in many high schools in Europe and North America, can

be an important tool to create well-read and knowledgeable students by necessarily exposing them to some amount of literature

- Academic reform aimed at creating a more methodical, and thus more efficient, system of

teaching, mainly by following a syllabus in teaching and encouraging student learning following a syllabus, as well as replacing the current system of copying down notes from a blackboard or being given photocopies of written notes by teachers, by a method where students write their own notes as well as make a mind-map and summary when done with each chapter, which can then be marked and corrected by teachers who can also correct and explain what went wrong to students who had made mistakes

- The importance of contextualizing teaching in classrooms, both to create a direction for

lessons as well as to create citizens who are well equipped to deal with the problems faced by our country

- Discussing women’s empowerment and the importance and impact of women for social

change and norms in a community

- A collective discipline system to maintain good class discipline, by applying the management principles of incentives and motivation on classes

- Allowing and encouraging students to take initiative in making and organizing extra-curricular

activities, and supporting student activities

- Motivating teachers to reach their maximum levels of performance and allowing them to use their creativity and methods in teaching

Library and Reading Material Overhauls

Summary of Steps:

- Allow free access to the library - Create a smooth system for borrowing books and movie DVDs - Buy a set of good books from the list of books given for the school library - Add DVDs of several movies to the school library - Create a reading list and a reading program for grades 8-9

Increase of materials in the library

Attached in the appendix is a list of books which should be bought for school libraries. School libraries should also have a stock of movies which students can borrow. As well as watching more movies being eye-opening from a cultural point of view, the presence of movies in a library also feels like the needs of students are being catered to, which increases motivation among students by making them happier with the school. Libraries should be open at all times, with students able to go and borrow books and movies from the library at any day or time of a school day, with no limitations such as ‘being able to borrow a book only once a week’ etc.

A reading list program

This program will be meant to create students who are quite well-read, while not being time-consuming enough to get in the way of studies. In this light, a program where students have to borrow and read one book from a given list of books every month and then talk about it in class, would fulfill both these requirements. This list of books can include classics as well as contemporary fiction books, ranging from books such as Wuthering Heights and The Age of Innocence to books such as Catcher in the Rye and The Kite Runner. One book per month for grades 8 & 9 (leaving out the final year grade 10 in order to let students focus entirely on exams) would result in students who have read atleast 20 good fiction books by the time they finish their O’ levels. The results of this reading program should be shown in the report cards- this is to signify that the importance of these activities are enough for them to be put in the same transcript file as your grades.

Academic Reform

Summary of Steps:

- Contextualizing the teaching of subjects and writing up a plan of basic contexts for each subject

- Closely following a syllabus and structured teaching - Aim of increasing understanding concepts not knowledge of facts/details - Simplified syllabuses as teaching material and learning guide - Syllabus-based notes taking and marking - Mind-maps and chapter summaries - Giving a yearly or term study plan in advance to students - Using blackboards as teaching and eliminating word-for-word note-copying

Structured Syllabus-Based Teaching

The teaching of subjects has to become more efficient and methodical. The basic step towards doing this should be:

- The preparation of a simplified, easy to follow syllabus that closely follows the actual syllabus of the given subject. Each point should be in the form of a clear objective, for example ‘being able to define the word diffusion’ or ‘being able to explain how group I metals react with acids with word and chemical equations’

- Giving students a syllabus copy - Explaining lessons following the syllabus (not necessarily in order of topics). No notes for

copying down should be written down on the blackboard. The board should only be used as an explaining tool, for example to show how something works with a diagram, or to write down core points or examples.

- Students being told to listen to the explanation and participate in a discussion, and then write down their own notes, strictly following the simplified syllabus. At the end of the week or a section or topic, the student can mark these notes, seeing if they are correct or wrong and if the syllabus has been entirely covered. Where part is missing or wrong, the teacher can correct it, and if any part seems to be problematic or show a lack of understanding, the teacher can individually explain the part to the student and require them to write their understanding of it down in the book correctly. This pulls along poorer students upwards by allowing extremely targeted improvement of weak points in their understanding, while allowing the stronger students who need less help to manage things themselves, and thus maximizes the efficiency of the use of teacher time and resources. The emphasis should be in understanding and writing by themselves- improper grammar, usage of Dhivehi words in self-explanations, etc are all allowed as long as it maximizes student understanding of the topic for when they read their own notes.

- At the end of every section or chapter, require students to make: a mind-map or diagram of the entire chapter on their own of about one page in size; a brief summary of notes of the chapter that is about one or two pages long; a list of definitions, formulas, or chemical equations that need memorization. This presents all the basic data of any topic in an easily readable form for each student and the availability of this will dramatically increase exam performance.

- At the start of every term or year, give a lesson plan of how the teacher plans to cover the subject over the course of the term or year to the students. This increases transparency and efficiency, while allowing students to be able to pre-prepare as well as structure their own study schedules or tuition schemes around this plan, set up a study plan for the year, etc.

Contextualizing Education

Teaching as stand-alone subjects is not conducive to a good and relevant education. The best way would be to teach subjects in certain given contexts, mostly with a Maldivian spin on it. For example:

- Science subjects should be taught in a Maldivian context. Classes should have discussions about applications or relevance to Maldives. For example, in discussions on environment and global warming or fertilizer use, the context of the effects of global warming or environmental pollution on the Maldives should be discussed.

- Economics and commerce stream subjects should also be taught in a Maldivian context. There should be discussions of the Maldivian stock market, major Maldivian industries and companies (tourism and fishing, Villa, MTCC, Felivaru, etc), the unique challenges of business in the Maldives (such as having to import raw materials, difficulty in achieving economies of scale, or etc).

- Dhivehi should be taught in a governmental context, with things that will be relevant to a student who will be living in the Maldives. For example, some occasional discussions of how the Maldivian government system is supposed to work, with teachers talking to students about the role of Parliament, the Supreme Court, etc. Transcripts or audio records of parliamentary debates can also be used as a tool for discussion in classes, as an example of Dhivehi in use in a formal and legal situation, for example.

Contextualizing education has many benefits. These include:

- Providing relevance to the topics being taught in school - Involving students into the discussion by talking about things happening around them - Having a common theme provides a direction to education that otherwise might threaten to

become a collection of facts

Discussion of Women’s Empowerment

Aminiya is an all-girls school for students who are at O’ level age, and thus a place where a vast amount of the capital’s female population grow up and discover the ideals and principles that will last them through life. However, since schools themselves often neglect this aspect, these ideals and principles end up being picked up from peers and the environment. The Millennium Development Goal #3 is to promote gender equality and empowerment of women in the Maldives. The MDG also recognize the importance and value of empowered women towards social progress and improvement. The completion of this goal faces many obstacles, mainly cultural and social barriers. Aminiya should take the opportunity to promote women’s empowerment among the young women of tomorrow, in what would seem to be a logical step for an all-girls high school. This should mainly be done by awareness and education of the following principles and ideas:

- The ability for the independence and self-reliance of women - The importance of women who are prepared for a tertiary education and positions of

importance in government and social capacities in a country - The impact that women have on setting social norms, in terms of how acceptance or

rejection of certain trends or issues by women can make or break them, and the responsibility in the sense of how young women not outright rejecting and renouncing things such as smoking, drug abuse, violence, gang activities, sexism and inappropriate behavior is essentially condoning such activities; the principle of women not having to settle for a compromise but being able to tell their friends, boyfriends and relatives whether they are unhappy with something or find something unacceptable instead of compromise; and how the opinion of young women is thus a vital factor in shaping social norms

- The importance of strong young female role models throughout a community working for social change as the sure-fire way to create grassroots improvement of the situation of women, especially in terms of empowering youth and cutting down on abuse and crime against women

Such topics should be discussed by teachers with students and regularly discussed in terms of the importance of women in a society and the importance of empowered and educated women throughout a community. Summary of some of these points:

- The angle of women’s empowerment - Stressing of the importance of educated, empowered and self-reliant women in a

community - Social impact of women - The power of women in a community in setting the social norm

Disciplinary Reform and Student Motivation

Summary of Steps:

- Collective responsibility to classes - Collective incentives and punishments - Teacher powers - A clear and pre-defined disciplinary system, clear consequences of actions, consistency - Stress on criticizing deed, not attacking character - Emphasis on student trust and discouraging snitching - Allowing students to present a defense or explanation - Student freedom to organize activities with detailed proposals - Social events such as movie day and the importance of having these as the incentive

Collective Discipline

Discipline has been a severe problem in schools over recent years. Giving too much free rein seems to be only promoting poor discipline, while the attempts at controlling students with strict discipline have proved unsuccessful in maintaining discipline while further alienating students. The most suitable means of maintaining discipline seems to be collective discipline, where students are given partial responsibility to the discipline of their class. This involves basically telling a class that they are supposed to follow a basic guideline (i.e. not talking loudly during class, being involved in discussions, not making noise, keeping the class relatively clean, etc) and that if they are unable to follow the guidelines given, the class as a whole is given the stated punishment, while presenting incentives to keep on following the guidelines. This deals with the impossibility of identifying offenders when trying to maintain discipline in a class, as when the whole class is talking or making noise it is difficult to single any people out, by giving a classroom of students the responsibility to make sure all their individuals maintain discipline. Since the whole classroom will lose privileges if they cannot keep to the disciplinary guidelines, it puts enormous peer pressure on trouble-making students to stop. The teacher will generally let the class maintain discipline among themselves if they manage to do so successfully instead of enquiring about details of who makes trouble, etc. For classes that keep on breaking the disciplinary guidelines, privileges will be taken away and eventually punishments will be given. Students that commit severe individual misdemeanors, such as insulting teachers or picking fights, etc, or repeatedly keep on breaking the rules can be given individual punishments, the highest of these being suspension and expulsion. There should be a clear rule-book or set of rules making clear what the punishment for each crime is (for example, fighting first time would be a certain punishment, second time a suspension, etc). These rules should always be applied consistently and without bias. When criticizing a student, there should never be a personal attack on character or the person themselves (such as you’re so stupid, or you’re so fat, etc). Snitching on fellow students should be highly discouraged. Students should be allowed to present an explanation or defense. If it seems like a one-time crime or something that would not be repeated, some amount of leniency would make the student feel more motivated not to do it again, whereas severe punishment for a first-time crime or something that

the teachers feel would be unlikely to be repeated will only breed resentment. When deciding to forgive, the teacher should get a written pledge from the student to not do the said crime again, and warn them of the consequences of repeating the crime. Teachers or supervisors should talk to the students first instead of going straight to the parents without telling the student beforehand. Telling on students to parents immediately before even discussing the problem with the student only breeds distrust and resentment.

Incentives

The existence of incentives, which can be taken away for poorly-disciplined classes and allowed as a privilege to classes that maintain disciplinary standards, etc, is important in the system described above. These incentives should also be motivating and inspiring events in their own right that add a bit of fun to school life. Ideas for this include:

- A ‘movie day’ every month or so where students of each grade get to watch a movie on a school-day, with students being able to vote which movie they would like to get to watch. The classes that passed the disciplinary standards can be given the privilege to attend, while classes that don’t will have to spend the day studying in classes as would be usual

- A fun and informal social event, for example a barbeque or dinner some night or weekend at Aminiya School for students of the grade, where students from classes that have gained the privilege if going by meeting standards can go by invite.

- And other such incentives that also are fun and interesting for students who get to be part of them.

Student Responsibility in Planning and Carrying Out Activities

The school should communicate to students that they have the freedom and that they are encouraged to plan and organize activities and events that they would like to have on their own, and that the school would be willing to back them and help them carry out the event or activity that they had wanted to carry out. Students are encouraged to plan any activities they would like to, with some ideas ranging from a talent show to field trips, inter-school or intra-school competitions, class activities etc, and present a detailed plan to the school. If they present a plan of how they will go about organizing the particular activity or event, show that they have enough member students to run such an event as well as the support of atleast one teacher who would act as an advisor, and in general can show the school enough for the school to feel confidence that the students can be able to organize the said event, the school should back and support the event. For example, if students organize an intra-school competition, the school should be willing to provide some classrooms on a weekend as well as some teacher volunteers for the event, announce the event in assembly, or any other such backing as is requested by the students. Students are also encouraged to do the same for any clubs or societies. If any student wants to start a club or society, they can present a plan to the school, as well as have atleast a given number of members and the support of a teacher. The school can then decide whether or not to approve the club or society and comply with the requests of the given club or society, for example allowing them the use of a certain class at a certain time for club meetings, etc.

The Importance of a Self-Improving School and Student Responsibility

Summary of Steps:

- Student suggestion box - Encouragement of student proposals for things they would like to see

The Importance of a Self-Improving School

Public schools in the Maldives often have a large number of students, and have limitations in money, teachers and facilities. In this context a school that is designed to be self-improving will very quickly reach the optimum standard possible. What I mean by a self-improving school is that, instead of all policies being decided at the start of a school year and running the school based on status quo and decisions decided beforehand, schools can have a system where everyone- students, teachers and staff- can recognize and point out problems or improvements, which can then be quickly acted upon. In addition to creating a system where optimum use of resources available can happen, this also has the added advantage of involving students and motivating students, teachers and staff. It is a basic principle in businesses that you should allow employees to make some of the decisions, or atleast have the ability to bring up ideas or problems and have some responsibility for the business, in order to increase productivity. This is from the logic that an employee who feels some amount of responsibility towards the company is more likely to do his work to the best of his ability than one who is just told what to do and has no real motive to try and work for the good of the company. This same principle could apply to students and teachers. In the current status quo, there is very little inspiration for students to particularly apply themselves at either their own studies or for the sake of the school. On a similar note, there is very little inspiration or motive for teachers to go out of their way to improve their teaching abilities, learn new and improved ways of teaching, bother to identify problems in class and address the problems in the current status quo, etc. With this in mind, I propose that students should be given the means to identify problems or potential improvements in schools, and a way to take responsibility for this and to correct it. This could be done through encouraging students to identify things they would like to correct in the school, write out a solution, a budget for the solution, and an idea of how to raise said budget. It is in the interests of students themselves to improve their schools, the places where they spend a lot of their time in, and if they feel like their ideas will actually bring about a change instead of just being read and discarded without even being considered, they will begin to come up with these ideas and suggestions. An example: if a student feels that the library needs more or better books, they can write out that they feel the library would do well with more books, write out a list of the books they would like to see in the library, call a bookstore to find their prices and put down a rough cost of the idea, and present it to the school management, who can then consider whether to buy it or not. After seeing this, the school would do one of the three options: agree to do the suggestion, or tell the student that if they are able to find the means to raise the money to do the suggestion, whether through a bake fair or carnival or whatever, the suggestion will be fulfilled, or to tell the students that the suggestion cannot be fulfilled and explain to them why. This could also happen to any other sort of

idea; for example, students who want to plant trees in the grounds, or buy sofas to make a leisure room, or buy new sports equipment, or get new food for the canteen, etc. Along similar lines, after every school fair or carnival, a specific amount of the money raised (after the school has covered costs) can be allocated to classes, for the students to give ideas on how they would like to see that certain allocation of money being spent, which the school can then use as a guide when spending the money raised. Students should also be able to give input on other aspects of school. For example, their time-tables and schedules, school hours, etc. The more students feel like their views are being heard and respected, the happier they are and more inspired they are to study properly.

Teacher inspiration and improving teacher performance

Summary of Steps:

- Monthly teacher meetings with presentations on what was learnt - Teachers given freedom to propose own activities or programs to school - Subject teacher meetings on teaching methods and ideas for the following week’s lessons - Teacher input into school improvement and decisions asked at monthly teacher meeting

Teachers for School Improvement

Such a program (being able to suggest ideas and proposals for school improvement) for teachers should also be in place in order to motivate them and make them feel more inspired and interested in their teaching and more willing to improve themselves, by feeling part of the school and organization instead of just feeling like people hired to speak in a classroom a certain part of each day. Teachers, for example, should be given the opportunity to propose ideas to the school administration, along with a budget and details of what the idea could be used for. For example, if they want to have a field trip, or start a new club or society, organize an interclass or interschool tournament, or propose a program relevant to the academics being taught (for example, an economics or business teacher might want to let her senior students run a small stall or store at school for a certain period of time in order to give them first-hand experience on running a small business), teachers should be given the opportunity to propose such ideas to the school. Being able to have this freedom would inspire teachers to maximize themselves and their efforts, and give them the opportunity to bring their ability and creativity into play by, to some degree, getting to use their own methods or ideas instead of just following the instructions of the school and nothing else only. In a system like this, feedback and communication between the various sectors- the student body, the staff and teachers, and the management and administration- of a school is very important. In this context, the communication between teachers and other academic staff (supervisors, principals) and the management and administration (who make policies, allocate budgets, etc) is of vital importance. It is the academic staff that has the training and knowledge to know what a school needs, not its administrative staff, and thus there should be a system to ensure that major decisions in administration must always be made after a discussion with the academic staff. Teacher-student communication is also important. The current system of schooling places an emphasis on teacher seniority and control and the subdued student, in a system similar to the school system in many other South Asian countries like India and Bangladesh. This system does not work, as is evident from the disaffected, undisciplined and uninspired student bodies of many classes at this level, and must be replaced gradually with a system that ensures more discussion and co-operation between the teachers and the students. Students need to feel that their views are being listened to, that they are respected as individuals, and that their needs are also considered. This is a long and complicated process. However, the first step towards this could be requesting teachers to move from a teaching system where they talk and write on the board, and students copy down notes and ask occasional questions, to a system that is more dynamic and more like a discussion. During the course of a lesson, teachers should ask students their opinions, hear feedback, and talk about the subject matter in a relatively informal manner that promotes full discussion and full understanding of the subject matter. Students should also feel the freedom to ask any questions they wish, as long as it is not frivolous or offensive, no matter how stupid the questions may seem.

Teachers should also ask students for feedback on their teaching or explaining, and use this feedback for later. At the end of a class or at the end of the teaching of a certain subject, a teacher can discuss the lesson with his/her class and ask questions such as ‘which parts of my explanation did you feel weren’t clear enough’ or ‘do you think it would make more sense if I used an analogy?’ or ‘how do you think I could improve my teaching of this lesson’. A school should not have static teachers- teachers should also be learning and improving over the course of their teaching lives, otherwise what is the point of experience? A system where teachers can hear feedback and improve also creates better teachers and thus a better education for the future, and optimizes the ability of the teacher by bringing out their maximum performance from them over time. To ensure teachers remain up to date and very knowledgeable in teaching skills and ways, there can also be a monthly or fortnightly meeting of teachers where teachers have to give a presentation on teaching skills, methods, programs, techniques or ideas they have come up with, either from personal experience, previous education, the Internet or books, etc. They can also present a summary of ideas they have learnt from them asking students (as mentioned in previous paragraph) to the other teachers.

Subject Teacher Meetings

Each group of subject teachers including the HOD should have a regular meeting to pool their ideas and discuss the lessons of the next week/fortnight. They should discuss good analogies to use, how to explain certain tricky topics, etc, from among the subject matter that is set to be taught by each of the teachers over the next week/fortnight. This allows newer or less experienced teachers to benefit from the expertise of more experienced teachers and HODs, while allowing all teachers to get more ideas and have a sounding board for trying out ideas and lessons and be able to improve their teaching and explaining.

A Sample Selection of Books for the Library and Reading List

Selected Edgar Allan Poe Tales

Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

Wuthering Heights

A Little Princess

The Secret Garden

The Jungle Books

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Frankenstein

The Scarlet Letter

A Tale of Two Cities

Animal Farm

Tales of Troy and Greece (Myths) Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass

Conversations of Plato

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

King Solomon's Mines

Grimm's Fairy Tales

Oliver Twist

David Copperfield

Jane Eyre

Pride and Prejudice

Great Expectations

Catcher in the Rye

Of Mice and Men

Love in the Time of Cholera

The Age of Innocence

Dracula

Black Beauty

The Lovely Bones

Where the Streets Had a Name

Anne of Green Gables & Anne of Avonlea

Things Fall Apart

Robin Hood

The Count of Monte Cristo

A Walk to Remember

The Call of the Wild

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Master and Margarita

Life of Pi

Long Walk to Freedom

The Life of Mahatma Gandhi The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time

A Christmas Carol

The Diary of Anne Frank

We Were the Mulvaneys

The Color Purple

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Joy Luck Club

The Time Machine

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

The Great Gatsby

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Stories Part I

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Stories Part II

1984

The Kite Runner

A Thousand Splendid Suns