Mulla Nasrudin went to see a rich man.

‘Give me some money.’

‘Why?’

‘I want to buy…an elephant.’

‘If you have no money, you can’t afford to keep an elephant.’

‘I came here’, said Nasrudin, ‘to get money, not advice.’

~ from The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah

That’s a funny tale that I have found to be true at different levels in relation to my experience as a consultant to schools.

I have come across schools trying to embark on ambitious projects that were currently beyond their means. For example, schools in Indonesia are scrambling to offer IGCSE to their students. Many do so without knowing fully the implications of such a move. For starters, doing the IGCSE means that the language of instruction has to shift to the English language. Most Indonesian schools simply do not have the teachers who can offer this prerequisite. I hope Indonesians reading this will not find this to be an attempt at disparaging their abilities. I have met many great Indonesian teachers. But all too often a TOEFL score of 500 is taken as an acceptable level of English language mastery for teachers. But surely, that is inadequate for those who want to use it as a language of instruction. Surely this is a serious hurdle that has to be overcome before trying to get on board the IGCSE train? Some schools have resorted to importing teaching staff from English-speaking countries like the Philippines and Singapore. But they are a lot more costly than Indonesian teachers and I will not advocate for, among other reasons, it will take away much needed jobs for the Indonesians. This has led to the “token native-speaker” in many such schools.

I also like that tale narrated above because when the Mulla was caught out, he seems to hesitate as he knew that he didn’t have a good reason to be given money. Then he came up with an excuse that he wanted to buy an elephant! This again is like how some schools behave. They need a marketing ploy to get the students, so they quickly jump on the first thing that perhaps comes to their mind, elephant-sized projects like the IGCSE.

Sadly, his concluding statement has a lot of truth about the situation with some schools. To give an example (and at the risk of sounding as if schools must accept the advise of those they consult), schools still go ahead with the IGCSE despite being advised not to do so by their consultants. So instead of ‘I came here to get money, not advice,’ what you get is the equivalent of ‘I came here to get IGCSE from you, not advice’. Of course if they seek the advice of the salesmen, they will encourage you to buy the elephant!

Think about it. There is much to learn from Mulla Nasrudin. If you like to read more similar tales from Mulla Nasrudin, click on the elephant.