IN her eagerness to prove her competencies and elicit praise from the MERD team, the HM of the Meten-Meer-zorg Primary School has bypassed the regional authorities and has issued an invitation to this supervisory body to visit her school.

To ensure that she has the required records for her office, she has pressured and harassed teachers to complete them (only a few hours as deadlines) causing almost all the teachers to abandon the instructional programme for an entire day.
Her demeanour reeks of impoliteness and disrespect. She speaks in a crude and crass manner often shouting at teachers and throwing tantrums in her quest to intimidate and dominate. She is even more rude to parents and other visitors.
Her leadership style is tantamount to that of a street vendor. She engages teachers and members of the PTA in gossip about other members of staff whose activities she wishes to monitor. The selective few who gossip are above reproof: they are never late, they are given time off, they get which class they want, etc.
She often holds inflexible positions citing they are policies of the Ministry of Education. But the ministry’s policies are not relevant when it relates to aspects of her administration which she manipulates and twists to suit her own vice.
Teachers work in an environment of stress and fear. How can they deliver effective lessons?
Her adamantine and callous nature was recently brought to the fore when she embarrassed one of her charges in the presence of children and parents. The individual was overlooking her child for a few minutes after returning from the nearby clinic and awaiting the arrival of the baby sitter. She had to leave and take her child home. Yet this upright HM supervised several of her own children for extended periods on the job during the last term. They monopolised the school’s computer playing video games and other games. Teachers were screamed at when they requested permission to print labels for their class records, notwithstanding that the ink was purchased from school funds.
Her obsession to acquire money for school funds has caused her to become unsympathetic and inhuman – pressuring the struggling and poor canteen workers to pay even when they do not sell. She is quickly becoming a scourge in the school and community.
Mr. Editor, this HM’s desire to assert dominance and control could soon lead to confrontation with all stakeholders and to the ultimate defeat of the Ministry of Education objectives.