By LAST week, I remembered a funny experience I witnessed in a private school some years ago. I was a teacher at the school. At a time, the school needed a teacher for a particular subject; for months they couldn’t get anyone.
I had a friend who was suitable for the position; at that time, she was about to complete her Master’s degree in that discipline. She wasn’t working then, so I told her about the opening and she applied. She told the school administrators that she was on her Master’s programme and they said that would not be a problem.
She started working and the problem started. The vice-principal asked her to bring her timetable; she had lectures twice a week. The timetable would be used to plan her classes in the school. The arrangement was that she would come to work every day and attend her lectures anytime she needed to.
A few weeks after she started working, she began having issues with the vice principal; the vice principal started denying her permission to go to her lectures. Even when she was no longer having lectures and all she needed was to see her project supervisor once a week, the problem persisted.
It was a tug of war and the whole thing was becoming too much for her. Eventually, she decided to quit. I knew about the stress she went through; I couldn’t advise her to stay.
However, she was not ready to give the school a month’s notice; she had not spent up to six months in the school. She needed to quit the job to retain her sanity.
On this fateful day, teachers were in the school, but the pupils were on holiday. We all converged in the school to write lesson notes and do one or two things. The salary for the previous month was paid that week but my friend had not been paid hers because she had not opened an account with the school. Her payments were made in cash.
Later that day, the vice principal called her and handed her an envelope that contained her salary. After receiving the money, my friend tendered her resignation letter. The vice principal was angry. ‘Why would she collect the salary when she knew she was leaving,’ he asked. And another round of problems started.
The lady was supposed to see her project supervisor that day, but the vice principal ordered the gateman to lock the gate. Nobody leaves the school until the closing time.
We, the lady and all other teachers, were held captive in the school till the appointed time.
