School culture and indiscipline

THE EDITOR: After reading about all the cases of violence and indiscipline in schools, and also recalling an article by Dr Patrick Quan Kep on the subject, it is imperative that educators take some time to do serious introspection.

Quan Kep mentioned that there is a wide range of issues leading to school indiscipline and sighted incompetent principals as being one of those factors.

However, it is time to put a different spin on the subject. Perhaps the goodly educator should also focus on school cultures that have developed from preceding school administrators (principals and vice principals) that would have created the indisciplined institutions that we now face.

I am referring specifically to one secondary school which was opened in the 1980s, in which the various principals had an affinity for “making cooks” and drinking liquor on afternoons.

In this particular school, no effort was made to repair, refurbish, build, introduce programmes for improving student learning or to simply help students succeed. This culture remained with the school for many years, and when the principal retired, another one replaced him with the same affinity for consuming alcohol and promoting social activities rather than trying to focus on student achievement.

Fast-forwarding to today, there is a new principal who is determined to help his students, and improve infrastructure but is faced with the Herculean task of having to work with a vice principal who was trained under previous principals and who has no interest in school improvement.

Any administrator including vice principals must have the following traits:

* An innovative mind and be willing to try new strategies.
* Be in constant communication with other administrators to seek out best practices for schools.
* Have a genuine desire to help students succeed.
* Have a love for children.

Perhaps Quan Kep should advise any of his vice principal acquaintances who are lacking in these attributes to take an early retirement and ride off into the sunset. A school can only progress when those individuals who have been strangling it for the past many years, remove themselves from the teaching service.

J MILLER via e-mail