“Having a vision for what you want is not enough. Vision without execution is hallucination.” Thomas A. Edison
“Welcome to the real world, my friend.” I said to a co-teacher in response to her frustration and helplessness about a mismanaged teaching project. The project, for her, was an internship. Her first on the job assignment and rendezvous with the reality of professional world. She said, “I swear I’ll never work for the government again, never sign up assignments that involves the government.” Well, considering this was her first professional assignment, I am sure the thought will change with time but what a start!
The ones who have suffered the most from the fiasco, are the end users – students of government schools in the National Capital Region. The idea was to utilize the summer vacation and help them learn the English language, teach them ways of improving their communication skills, boost their confidence and so on. Great thought but an execrable execution! An abrupt change in the strategy, in just under two weeks in the project, has now put paid to the hopes of some of the students. The participation which was not great to begin with, has now gone from bad to worse. Ironically, the idea was to better the attendance.
Not educating the stakeholders, miscommunication, administrative delays, slipshod planning, the list is long and distinguished but I think this sums it up all right. The think tank wasn’t aware about the ground reality. In some cases they were given a list of students, supposedly registered, but it was the entire list of students as it turned out to be. There was no clarity among the school staff about the fees. Some schools asked their students to pay a very nominal amount (refundable), others said it was free.
Wonder how things would have been if a person or team was deployed to not only educate the principals but the students, and their parents as well. This would have confirmed the participation, the decision makers would have got the pulse and the logistics would have been taken care of. Benefit – people would own their responsibilities and could be held accountable. As of now, I hear, the blame game is on.
Starting a pilot batch with just a handful of students/schools might have been a better idea. A phased approach would have helped us overcome resistance, identify loop holes, address challenges before launching big. I think it would have laid a solid foundation for the project. Plus, more participation. I believe that is what we wanted and that is how big projects are run or managed.
After effects of this mess – the initiative has gone for a toss. Some of us teachers are rendered jobless with a feeble ray of hope that we’ll be back in action in the next cycle. Totally uncertain as of now. For teachers who were available for the first cycle only are leaving demotivated and dejected. But spare a thought for the students. There has been a remarkable improvement in their confidence and communication in just 2 weeks. They all want to make it big in their lives, some of them aspire to be journalists, chartered accountants, flight stewards and so on.
Well, what has happened cannot be undone. However, it will be interesting to see if we have learnt from our mistakes. Words like accountability, planning, ownership and commitment should form the backbone of the project. As of now, by the looks of it, its fate hangs on a thin thread.
