School Principals in Danger on all sides

When I was in High School the Principal, Ms Watson, was pretty much the embodiment of God on campus. When we walked past her office door tones were hushed, even teachers walked through that door with caution, and we learners saw more than one come out in tears, grab their coat and exit the school gates for ever. Her wrath was to be feared from the Deputy all the way down to the mouse who lived in a hole in the skirting next to the kitchen door, she knew everything and everyone that was a part of that school. Parents who arrived without an appointment would be sent packing! Even the Inspector from the Education Department was palmed off on a Deputy when he arrived one morning without warning. As for the Governors, they headhunted Ms Watson, and once installed she told them the score quite clearly! She picked up a school which might well have died, and while I was there our school was crammed full, expanding as quickly as the builders could finish a classroom.

I think Ms Watson would turn in her grave if she could see how Principals of schools are treated today.

• I interviewed a lady Principal recently who was knocked down from behind by a gr 11 learner, and dragged by her hair. Three other teachers saw what was happening and grabbed her feet, the Principal's person became the rope in a tug of war between three teachers and a crazed learner. Eventually they managed to manhandle her into the staffroom and slam to door! The Education Department declined to take action against the learner.
• Another Principal dropped off his CV the other day, he had not been paid for three months at the end of last year because the Governing Body told him that the enrolment had dropped lower than it was when he started work for them.
• A third phoned to say goodbye, he has been driven out of his post by helicopter parents who are demanding that their little dahlings all be given distinctions for just about every subject, because it is the teachers' fault that they have not taught them properly, he is the idiot who hired atrocious teachers.
• Then there is the Principal whose governing body told her on 3 December 2018 she would have to work on 16th December because that was the only time they were available to interview teachers for 2019 (guess what? They were not able to make any appointments that day and the Principal is still short of staff for her school. The Governing Body is furious with her because she has vacant posts!)
• Then I could name half a dozen Principals who were pushed out of privately owned schools in the past eighteen months because either they did not make a profit at all, or not enough of a profit to keep the owners happy. Silly me, I thought schools were about education, but in our Rainbow Nation a huge number are actually all about generous payments to the directors, investors, shareholders and a whole lot of others who wouldn't have the first clue how to run a school themselves. Poor Ms Watson must be giddy from turning over by now.
• This morning I had a head on the phone who was pushed out of a lovely school on Thursday last week because he could no longer endure the pressure from the board to increase enrolment; his wife told him that she and the kids were leaving if he did not stop working seven days per week.
• And now I have the Director of a Company which owns more than one school on the phone accusing his last Principal of being a drug addict. Assuming the accusation is true, I was sorely tempted to ask what drove him to drugs?
• Small wonder that I have six people on the database at the moment who have been Principals of schools - two of them have been Principal of more than one school - who say "Never again! I just want to be an ordinary teacher!"

US research is pretty unanimous in it's finding that the expectations of the Principal, as leader of the school, will determine where the bar is set and measure the quality of education offered in a school by the bar they have set. UK research puts it a little differently - the Principal is the person who creates and maintains an enabling environment in which teachers are held accountable for offering the best quality education they are capable of to learners. Whichever version you like, unless the Principal receives the full support of Education Ministries, Administrators, Parents, Governing Body Members, Teachers and serious Learners it is not possible for them to do their job! And the learners are the biggest losers, as usual.

So it is with a heavy heart that I embark on yet another search for a Principal. I am terrified that in six months time she will come back to tell me what "they" did to her. "They" might be the Education Department, the Governing Body, the owners of the school, the parents, the learners or the teachers. But whoever it is, if they do not treat the Principal fairly and with proper respect, if they do not give her the latitude to do what needs to be done to offer quality education to the kids, then they have abused her and the the school should be closed. Because it is not possible to offer quality education to learners in an environment where those who are accountable for the quality of the education offered are prevented from giving sufficient attention to the most important task they are charged with.

Rest in peace Ms Watson. Thank heaven you lived when you did and not now.