Abstract
M.Ed.
No matter how good our schools are, or how good they have been, schools must be even be better in the future to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. The teachers must be committed to creating a climate in which excellence can thrive (Spanbauer, 1993: 13). Spanbauer (1992: 7) further states that top management needs to play a major role in promoting the process of learning and teaching and make appropriate changes in policies, procedures, systems and quality improvement techniques. According to Barnett (1994: 73) we live in a changing society where today's competencies are not tomorrow's. He goes further and states that the behaviour of teachers as human beings is unpredictable in various situations and it is, therefore, difficult to identify teacher competence. Teachers at schools should be competent at all times because teachers are in loco parentis to the pupils. This means that while children are in their charge it is the duty of the teachers to take as much care of pupils and to be professionally committed to them and to be as concerned for their safety and welfare as prudent parents (Wright, 1972: 132). Wright further states that teachers should be competent because if they fail to use their competence to protect pupils and pupils are harmed because of teacher incompetence, teachers may find themselves held legally responsible and liable to pay heavy damages. This means that teachers should be competent to make the environment conducive to teaching and learning. The schools can be improved through teacher participation, cooperation and trust. Structural aspects that might be used to restructure and transform educational culture include training of teachers, performance appraisal
systernF, principal and teacher preparation, planning and control mechanisms,
accounting procedures and centralizing and decentralizing of authority (Cunningham
& Gresso, 1993: 23). Parents and other stakeholders in education are unhappy about the presence of incompetent teachers in the teaching profession (Bridges, 1992: 2). Bridges (1992: 2) adds that for many years parents have expressed their reservation about teaching quality in annual polls of the public's attitudes towards public schools. The
competence of teachers in those schools should be investigated. The presence of
incompetent teachers in the teaching profession casts a dark shadow on the grounds of those who are overworked, underpaid and unappropriated for their efforts and accomplishments (Bridges, 1993: 3). According to Williams (1984: 106) the competence of many teachers is highly questionable and the authors must begin to make effort to mute it out. Teacher competence should, therefore, be researched to distinguish between competent and incompetent teachers.