It's 9am and the school is still empty.
Mr Jack was surprised at the level of decay in the system.
Sighting a student from a far, he exclaimed; "Come here right now!"
However, within the blink of an eye, Paul ran into the bush.
It was the first day of Mr Jack at work and the mountain of problems he was hired to come and solve was staring at him barely few hours of resuming his duty.
Mr Jack is angry. His eyeballs are red and every word that comes out of his mouth now comes in a loud voice as if the audience is hundred of meters away.
With his both hands crossed behind his back while walking slowly to his office, he noticed some students playing balls while others were either plucking mangoes or standing in groups to talk or play. He saw some teachers resuming work 3 hours behind time.
Now in his office, holding a pen in between his teeth, he nearly missed his seat as he was lost in the thoughts of the level of the decay.
He barely sat down when he heard a knock at the door.
"Come in please", he responded
"Good morning Sir", Mr Peter greeted.
He did not waste time to introduced himself further;
"I am Mr Peter, the Vice Principal. We have been informed about your coming at our PTA (Parent/Teachers Association) meeting last week. A lot was said about you by the chairman of the PTA. I hope to work with you to get the desired result Sir"
"Good morning Mr Peter. It's very nice having you.
"Please have your seat" Mr Jack responded.
"It's my pleasure to join you in this school". Mr Jack began.
"I can see that there is enormous challenges here to be tackled. Challenges ranging from indiscipline on the part of some teachers and students.
For how long has it been like this?" He asked
"It's a long story but I will try to make it as brief as possible" Mr Peter then gave the background of the school.
"The idea of establishing this school was conceived by the leaders of this village. Our children were trekking for kilometers to acquire secondary education. To make education more accessible to our children, the Taaru (Traditional ruler) of this village called upon prominent sons and daughters of this village, working in cities, to help establish a community school. A fundraising ceremony was held and the proceeds used to establish this school.
"However, it has been difficult to maintain a standard in the school because most of the teachers are volunteers that are only given stipends at the end of every months from levies paid by the students. The community have been trying to convince the State government to take over the school but each time the government representatives come for inspection, what they meet is always not encouraging.
My Jack interrupted;
"My major assignment is to restructure the school to the least minimum standard that the government could be convinced to take over.
"We have a lot to do and the job starts now. Please we need to have a staff meeting now so as to introduce ourselves"
"Alright, let me go round and tell the teachers to converge in the school hall". The VP responded.
Few minutes later, the teachers gathered in the hall and the Vice Principal presided over the meeting before handing over to the principal after introduction.
In his speech, the Principal expressed his disappointment at the level of decay in the school.
"My sojourn here is just for one year", he said.
"Our vision is to get this school ready for government takeover. The immediate change I need from you now is punctuality. Starting from tomorrow, let me see your readiness to cooperate with me and effect a change. We don't have time and as such, I want you to go to your classes now and tell your students that there will be assembly tomorrow by 8 am. We shall continue this meeting tomorrow at the close of school." He concluded.
All the teachers left for their various classes and passed the information to the students as instructed.
The teachers were seen in groups discussing the wave of change about to hit the school.
"Imagine making us to wait around after school for a meeting, does he know that what we are being paid is not enough to cater for our family?" Alex was asking another colleague, Jane.
"Hmmmmm, let's see how things unfold. I hope he doesn't send us out of this school with his leadership style" Jane replied.
It's obvious that laziness has been entrenched in the system and changing the tide will be accompanied with crumbles and resistance in worse case scenario.
Mr Jack spent another three hours after working hours, going through files while writing down some lines of actions to be taken in a diary.
It's the morning of Tuesday and the students and teachers gathered in the Assembly ground. Standing in front of the students is a tall, dark in complexion man turning his head 180° to see the students while the VP was introducing him.
With his loud and deep voice, he began to address the students.
"I am Mr Jack , your new Principal. I am here to make the system better for all of us. Please, be a good student that follows rules and regulations of the school. The rules shall be pasted in your individual classes tomorrow. Unless it is time for your break, I don't want to see anybody outside. You can now match to your classes." He concluded.
Mr Jack met with the teachers as planned and a lot about what he was bringing onboard were discussed. He set up different committees to divide the labour. Among the committees were academic, disciplinary, sport, club and societies, exams. He gave each committee its terms of reference.
Soon after, sanity returned to the school because he put all the committees on their toes to get desired results. Punctuality became the order among the teachers and the students.
The principal created a reward mechanism for outstanding teachers and students. He once said to the teachers;
"If you manage another person's organization as if it were yours, it will be easy to manage yours in future when you get one."
To encourage the students, he would visit them at home to have a good time with them and their parents. This level of love from Principal to students was never experienced by the students. The students have improved and now show serious attitude to learning individually and in groups.
It was 7 months into his tenure in the school and the government decided to come again for inspection for possible takeover. The officials met a well organized school with a good administrative structure.
"This is a magical touch", one of the officials said in reference to Mr Jack achievements.
The government took over the school two weeks later. It was celebration upon celebration among the villagers.
At the completion of his one year contract, the village organized a reception for him.
Speaking at the reception, the Taaru said;
"You have done well. We appreciate your efforts. On behalf of all my subjects, I change the name of the school hall to Mr Jack hall. You left an indelible footprints."
The children were in tears while the parents weren't happy too for the principal leaving the school.
Mr Jack appreciated the school and hospitality of the villagers. He left the following day to his family.
It's too bad that Mr. Jack had to leave. I like the progression. At first, he seems like a bad sort of guy, but then we see that he was just trying to improve things, which he does it seems.
He indeed got a result. A very result oriented administrator.
Very nice interpretation of the prompt. You certainly do show us the state of the school when Mr. Jack arrives. Footprints: We all hope to leave some that make a difference in the world. By improving the school, Mr. Jack made a contribution to the future, for children are the future.
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Thank you for the feedback. I have commented on two other writers and I won't stop there. The interactions after reading others' work continues.
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What an interesting story that brings back memories! The precise description of the state of this school is what we often see around us and I like how Mr Jack took up the responsibility and changed things.
Very inspiring story. Well done. 🙂
Mr Jack is a role model to people with the intention of leaving a remarkable footprints.
Thank you very much.
Who won't love this story? This is an interesting story that brings hope when all hopes are lost.
Thank you for the words of encouragement.
Mr Jack is really a devoted man. He was able to make a honorable change, I feel bad that he had to leave.
But is also good at least he can go to somewhere else and bring a positive change to the place he is assigned to.
Truly he is. The word needs more of such people that are dedicated to what they do.
Thank you very much.
This is very common in our schools especially government owned institution. Teachers are nonchalant towards their jobs and students careless about their education. if every school has someone like Mr. Jack, it will surely boost the level of education in the nation.
You are right. The decay is enormous. The system is not designed to have many of Mr Jack type. However, outstanding teachers/administrator who knows the implication of their actions on the pupils will try their best to leave a memorable legacy.
Thank you very much.
This is an interesting story which everyone will be glad to read. Well done my friend! Please continue with a good job!
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