What's Going On?

Can you imagine being in a school, or any organisation for that matter, where nobody knows exactly what is going on? Well, that pretty much sums up what being in my school is like most of the time. You may start to wonder if we have a principal. Well, we do. Are there enough assistants to help him with his tasks? There are. In fact, we have enough staff in the school as dictated by the Ministry of Education to handle all school affairs. So why the chaos?

The problem lies in poor communication and leadership skills. My school has the tendency to make last-minute decisions which throws everyone into a state of unreadiness. Let me elaborate with some examples. Despite promising to notify us of any after-school meetings at least a few days earlier so that teachers can make any changes to their plans beforehand, we end up being told to attend meetings just one day earlier, or worse still, on the same day that the meeting is held! Mothers need to make frantic calls to their babysitters to arrange for a new time to pick up their babies, teachers have to cancel after-school tuition which they have promised their students, and these students are left stranded because they have no transport to go home. Or students are told out of the blue that there will be compulsory sports practice after school, causing them the inconvenience of notifying their parents at the last minute not to fetch them at the usual time. Worse still are those who rely on school buses to get home. There's no way they can ask the bus drivers to wait for them for a couple of hours more! There are also instances where students are told to stay back on a certain day, but when that day comes, they are suddenly told that they do not need to stay back anymore, because the activity has been cancelled. Needless to say, students are stranded with no transport to get home... again.

These are just some examples of what happens almost daily in my school. Teachers have reminded the administration time and again to at least inform the students a day beforehand if they need to stay back the next day, so that they can arrange their own transport. This is when I show what poor leadership we have in school. Despite being aware of these numerous problems and complaints, not a single concrete action has been taken to address the issue. The same problem crops up again and again, and yet, the principal seems oblivious to it. Oddly enough, he is the one who preaches on accountability and punctuality during meetings. If he values time so much, why is he wasting everyone's precious time?

What happened today and yesterday is yet another fine example of poor administration. Speech Day was held today, and teachers were assigned to specific tasks a few weeks earlier. Everyone did as they were told, and the vice principal asked us for updates during a meeting. All seemed well. However, he was not around yesterday and today because he had to attend a meeting somewhere else, and everything seemed to descend into chaos. Sure, the principal was around, but he wasn't coordinating anything. I would say that he was just making his presence felt, lingering around the school hall, not even the least bit disturbed that the rehearsal was not going as planned. With no one coordinating the rehearsal yesterday, nothing went smoothly, and there was another rehearsal scheduled this morning. Unfortunately, without a clear leadership again, it dragged on till noon and still, nothing seemed to be finalised. A full rehearsal never materialised.

Of course, this was not the only problem. With some of the teachers not entering their classes (as they were busy with the 'rehearsals') students were having a gala time in class. Some other teachers took the opportunity to not enter their classes as well. So, the whole school was in chaos, with students running all over the place, out of control. There were still a bunch of teachers who went on with their lessons, but the noise outside the classrooms was always distracting. I'm sure the principal was aware of this, but he did not do anything to rectify the situation. He also did not announce when school would end today to make way for Speech Day later in the afternoon, despite being asked about it earlier in the morning. Again, he should have made the decision a day before, so parents would know what time to fetch their children the next day. Students kept on asking teachers for the time, but nobody could give them an answer. All we could do was ask them to wait for any announcement -- but that didn't come either. Without a definite answer from the principal, the other vice principals and senior teachers dared not say anything as well. Eventually, teachers and students took matters into their own hands and dismissed at 12.30pm.

Personally, this is by far the most chaotic day in school. No one knew exactly what was going on; not the students, not the teachers, and I dare say, not the principal himself! Will there be another day worse than what I've experienced today? I dread to think about it...