Lesson 2  – Use This Secret To  Attract And Retain QUALITY Parents !

Let the kind of parents you want to attract be more important than the school. Standard only scares off average parents. It attracts quality parents.

Don’t be deceived by other schools’ numbers. The numbers of pupils in a school are not proportional to payments coming into that school. So don’t be swayed by what you see in other schools. Nobody wants to talk about their problems with you.

 I was asked the following question by a school owner:-

 My school closed two years ago. It was due to high rent and debt. It is about to be reopened in the same environment. The fear is how I will cope again in this environment, especially with the same parents. I would appreciate your response, sir.”

Here is my response.

Parents who want to enrol their children in any private school lookout for certain things they expect in the school before deciding to enrol their children

Several people will mention well-equipped laboratories, clean toilets, a rich and competitive curriculum, well-dressed and well-spoken staff, a neat environment, well-stocked libraries, virtual libraries, a cutting-edge ICT facility, and well-planned co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

Despite the importance of all these facilities in a school, parents seek other things in their children’s schools. These qualities are so crucial that if they are not present in a school, it will either be a low-flying school or may even be on the verge of extinction.

Please understand me. I am not suggesting that schools should not have modern facilities. Yes, you should, but your state-of-the-art facilities will be nothing more than a waste of resources without the following secrets.

What  are those secrets?

They are 20 secrets but just one secret will discuss here.

Ready?

 Hire Quality Teachers!

The kind of teachers you employ will influence the response you will receive from parents upon resumption. Employ professionals, not undergrads, regardless of what they are paid.

Parents are watching you from afar. They knew most of your employees are SSCE holders. They knew some of them weren’t supposed to be teachers. In spite of this, they kept quiet because they knew you had low school fees.

But if you start with quality parents, you will attract quality teachers who will teach well to get paid. It is not enough to say that you can attract good teachers. They must be able to teach well, and your school must have a reputation for the value of what it offers.

Take your game to the next level. Hire the brightest minds for your school. Set your STANDARD and taste high. Never be afraid to grow.

The parents you want are within your school location, but the lack of quality is driving them away.

So how do you get this reputation? How do you get good parents to talk about your school?

A few months ago, I was handling a session with another  school owner who explained to me, “she hired an experienced administrator, and that the man is elderly with more than 45 years of experience.”

It sounds intriguing; however, that is not what you should focus on. Growth does not require experience but rather an expertise. For example, you need to define what kind of person you are looking for in a teaching position. Consider performance in addition to experience when hiring a new teacher.

If you are looking for a teacher that can handle over 35 students at a time, don’t look for someone with experience. Look for someone with the gift of taking large numbers.

Don’t look for experience when recruiting your school

administrator, look for someone who is an expert in administration. Don’t just go by the number of years a person has worked , go by what they bring to the table.

I’m not against experience, but if someone has been teaching for over 45years and still doesn’t know how to handle discipline issues, they need training, not more years of experience. Likewise, if someone has been teaching for over 45years but is still struggling with basic arithmetic concepts, they should be taken out of the classroom and put on an administration job where numbers are not involved.

Most schools are impressed when teachers tell them that they have 11 years of experience. But, during those 11 years, what has he accomplished?

Instead of looking for experience, look for competence.

What kind of teachers are you seeking?

Do you employ teachers with high graders and reject those with demonstrated performance?

Search for teachers who are skilled in handling children, rather than just teachers who love children.? Even though she is so good, she always gets overwhelmed when a group of five or six children are playing together.

Most teachers experience performance problems because they struggle to maintain productivity when the number of students increases. For example, the instructor is comfortable teaching 8 -students in a class; however, the next class they will teach will be 18 – students.

A teacher’s primary responsibility is to subject the students in their class. This is why teaching is called subject training lessons. Look for a teacher who can handle the challenges and needs of the learners.

Love for children is not enough!

I know of schools that hire teachers based on their grades only. This doesn’t seem right because grades can be manipulated by some students who are experts in cheating and impressing their professors. They have no performance on how they manage students or perform when they teach a class. I know there are schools out there that hire based on grades only. They use the results of an exam or end of term tests to decide if a teacher has done well or not. But grades can be manipulated too.

 Remember cases where a student was caught cheating in exams but still got high grades because he knew how to work around the system? There was also another case where one student got high scores in his first two semesters but never showed up in class after that and still passed with flying colours!

Do not hire online, do not hire because they are your friend’s sister, classmate’s neighbour, auntie’s niece’s boyfriends’ girlfriends’ nephews’ nieces’ first cousins’ second cousins, third cousins, fourth cousins or any other relationship you can think of.

Hire based on performance and subjects’ mastery. You can know if they are performance driven by asking them to show you a sample lesson. If they cannot teach, they will not be able to do this.