Agadir – In the business sector some high ranking administrators are hired into better positions based on their CV’s and business history and accomplishments.
These ladies or gentlemen are welcomed into their new positions and cheerfully presented with a substantial “welcome package” which may include among other things, a very “respectable” amount of money, a key to their new car and another one for a luxurious accommodation along with other benefits as a bonus.
This is, to my mind, quite understandable when you consider the expected positive impact those people are going to have on the companies or businesses that hired them. Such impact can range from better management to better performance, better accomplishments, better competitiveness on the market and above all much better financial ‘harvests” for the new companies or businesses they have joined.
The idea of the welcome package is of course included in companies and businesses strategies as encouragement to attract the most brilliant and qualified administrators and managers in their field of activity and yet from another perspective as a type of investment to forward their performance, productivity and presence on the market
What is of interest to me is not so much what these brilliant CEO’s and top managers get, rather I am interested in the idea of the “Welcome package” itself. This innovative idea, in my opinion, can be extracted from the framework of business and profit and borrowed into the field of education. As is often the case, after their training, most Moroccan school teachers get “parachuted“ into areas they are hardly acquainted with. They oftentimes do not have friends or relatives or anybody else who would lend a helping hand until they could fly of their own wings and lead a descent life. The effect of the “parachuting” could have quite an impact on the newly appointed teachers especially if the hardship of being “broke” is added to the “parachuting effect” and all the adaptability to the new environment all of that requires.
To lessen the “parachuting effect” there is absolute need to make recourse to this ingenuous idea of the “Welcome package.” I think a lot of readers would agree with me up to this moment, but then the big question would be: ‘Who is to translate that “welcome package” idea into practical terms?” Education is a great investment for nations, unfortunately its impact is not there to be felt on the short term and therefore profit oriented people or institutions may not consider the idea. So, simply forget it and see if someone else would be interested.
It is not up to me to say who is going to adopt the idea but what I can say for sure is that from my experience as a Fulbright exchange teacher in Indiana, USA, I have seen this idea being successfully implemented. The people who were behind such a beneficial initiative were established teachers who contributed in cash or in kind to the “Welcome package” for expected novice teachers who were to join their school the following academic year.
The package included food that could last for a given period of time along with simple presents such as text-books, writing material and a number of cell phone cards, in case the novice teacher wanted to call family or friends. If you are put into the novice teacher’s shoes and receive such support, backing and attention, I am sure you in turn will work harder to first, do your job well and second, whenever possible take action to make life easier, more enjoyable and more rewarding for other people whose paths may cross yours.
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