Sunday 11th August 2013 ***We wont allow HM to kill devolution*** When, last week, Mr Juma, the HM of our school, devolved the role of the school’s chief timetabler from me to Tito, I was not too surprised; for it was a continuation of a trend he started a few weeks ago. This was not the same Juma who, when he took over the reins of the school a year ago, devolved a lot of powers and responsibilities to teachers. The previous HM ran the school as his personal property. The firstthing Juma did when we was appointed was to keep his door open to anyone at any time. Secondly, he delegated critical responsibilities like making final speeches on parade, signing all report forms, meeting with parents over disciplinary issues, among others. He surprised us when he allowed Kwame the Deputy, and Lutta the Senior Master to sign the report forms. (Although I must mention that honestly speaking, I should be the Senior Master). This was refreshing and Kwame and Lutta wrote different things on the report forms. Previously, we had been used to seeing only one statement in all report forms from the Headmaster: Pool up your socks! On parade, he would let the deputy to be the last to speak and, at times, just the teacher on duty. The previous HM had set a tradition where he spoke last at all parades, even though most of the times, he would be repeating what the deputy would have said. In many cases, the deputy would simply be repeating the teacher on duty’s speech. That was not all: whenever he was out of school for several days, Juma would leave a teacher to assist the deputy run the school. “I would like everybody to know how power tastes,” he would say. Whenever he left any one of us in charge, we would use his office. I must say it felt good. In fact, that is how I was able to win Fiolina. If you remember, the first time she visited me in school; the HM was away and had left me in charge. Fiolina arrived to find me seated in the HM’s office. Needless to say, she entered box! Disciplinary issues A few weeks after he took over, Juma completely dissociated him from handling disciplinary issues. Before him, whenever a pupil was sent away for disciplinary issues, it would be the HM to handle the case. At first Juma delegated this role to the deputy but a few months later directed that such would be done by the senior master or the teacher on duty. Things were going well until early June. I guess he was forced to change after being away for about two weeks. At the time he let Lutta and Kwame in charge. Kwame also went away and he left Madam Anita in his place. As everyone knows, on any day, Lutta would rather be on his farm than be in school. With no one above him, Lutta was rarely in school. He also delegated most of the powers he had to me. For example, he gave me powers to suspend any student involved in serious disciplinary cases. This presented me with a perfect opportunity to mete out my revenge on a few people. You will all remember how in February I was arrested by the assistant chief for aiding Nyayo to steal. This was my time to get back at the assistant chief. I embarked on a mission of finding his son, Clifford, on the wrong side of the law. It did not take long. The second day, I found him walking around with his shirt untucked. I immediately suspended him and asked him to come back with his father after two days. They arrived in school two days later. I was not going to leave classroom early just to go attend to an indisciplined boy and an unreasonable parent. They were seated at the corridor outside the office when I came from class. Since I had another lesson immediately after, I just greeted them and asked them to wait until I finished the next class – a double lesson. They had to feel the way I had felt the day I had been arrested when I was made to wait for long. I was in the middle of the class when I received a call from the HM. “Who is handling Clifford’s case,” he asked me when I answered. He inquired on the whereabouts of Kwame and Lutta when I told him that I was the overall in charge. I just told him that they were away. He then instructed me to expeditiously handle the assistant chief’s case. Corporal punishment I went to the HM office and called the chief and his son to the office. After a long lecture to both parent and son, I gave the son corporal punishment of mending 20 metres of the fence with Europhobia, and dismissed the father. A few minutes after the chief left, the HM called me and ordered me to give Clifford lighter punishment. I had touched a wrong nerve; Juma and the chief were close friends who worked together. In fact, it was always rumoured that one of them had used the other one’s certificate to get a job, although it was never agreed who had used the other one’s papers – mainly because they are both not very bright. The HM returned the next day and in the staffroom meeting gave a stern warning to all of us. “Power seems to have gotten into your heads,” he said. “I just left you for a week and Kwame left the school for Lutta who also left the school in Dre’s hands.” “And Dre used this to show people how powerful he is!” Kwame and Lutta said that they had been sick. “And who gave permission to anyone to sit in my office?” he asked. No one could answer. Since then, the HM started taking back the powers that he had previously devolved. First, the key to his office remained with him all the time and he always locks the office when in – although we suspect that was to offer him privacy whenever Madam Ruth visited him. Secondly, he has been handling all disciplinary cases and he is always the last to speak on parade. All of a sudden, Juma has been interested in things that he had never cared about. Last week, he asked all of us to share with him our schemes of work and lesson plans. He has also been strict on arrival time and has been supervising the deputy to supervise the teacher on duty. Last, he surprised us when he announced that he will be going through all the report forms to comment on them. “Let me have all the report forms by Thursday,” he said. To have greater control of issues in the school, he has also been removing key responsibilities from independent TSC teachers to PTA teachers where he can exert his influence. A good example was the timetable which he gave to Tito, who is a PTA teacher that the HM hired and pays. That is not all. He has been meeting the prefects alone twice weekly. Sources at the sessions indicate that the prefects are under instructions to report to him all our weekly activities. The prefects also take roll-call when we attend class and report to the HM weekly. We met with Lutta and Kwame at Hitler’s last Friday and have a plan in place to fight back this micromanagement from the HM. Watch this space.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 00:45:11 +0000
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