MWALIMU ANDREW: Fresh trouble as lady teachers now revolt

When you are seducing a girl, you have to be very good to them, and promise them instant heaven.

But trouble always comes when once you have them, it becomes difficult to even deliver hell. I found myself in such a situation sooner than I had anticipated. If you remember, the female lady teachers in our school were an important plank in my plans to recapture my hard-earned school deputyship.

As such I promised them a lot, particularly flexible and preferred lessons. Mrs Atika had even come to me asking if she could be exempted from teaching upper classes.

“With this my age, I think I should just teach lower primary mdogo mdogo until I retire,” she had said, and I agreed with her.

“But as you know, my hands are tied. These are decisions I would have made chap chap if I were the deputy,” I told her.

“That’s why we are fighting for you to be the deputy,” Mrs Atika said, then added: “In my opinion, you should actually be the headmaster of this school, not a mere deputy.”

That was music to my ears, but I did not comment since I knew that walls have ears. Needless to say, Mrs Atika, and her fellow female lady colleagues, fully supported my efforts to get back my office. The only female lady who was not enthusiastic was Nzomo, who still regrets the day Sella joined our school. Sure enough I got my office back.

Although I had told Sella to do the school timetable to address teachers’ concerns, there were still problems when the timetable came out. A lot of teachers did not like the timings of the classes, as well as the number of lessons per week. Mrs Atika complained of how she had to wake up early morning two days every week, and leave school late twice every week since she had afternoon classes.

The other complainant was Madam Ruth. As you know, Ruth has a seven-month-old baby. The new timetable gave her morning lessons twice a week, and she was not amused.

“Dre you know Melvin needs to get milk before I come to school,” complained Ruth. “Now I have to go back home after class for her. It’s not easy so I want you to know that if the timetable remains as it is, I will not be attending the early morning class.”

“We are looking into that Ruth,” I said. “But don’t miss a class because of that, we are addressing your concerns.”

“We have so many Young Turks who still have hot blood to teach upper class,” complained Mrs Atika. “Why paka mzee like me still struggles with them I don’t understand.” I told her I was addressing her concerns.

Maximum 28

Nzomo and Lena, on their part, complained of too many lessons. “How do you expect me to teach 35 lessons per week?” Nzomo asked me. “Even TSC recommends a maximum of 28.” Lena, with her bad hair, complained that she was finding 29 lessons a week too many.

“Some of these classes should be given to Oscar and Eric who are currently under utilised,” said Lena.

I called Sella to my office to discuss the timetable and see how best we could accommodate the teachers’ requests. I first told her the complaints.

“I know them but I don’t have much I can do,” she started. “Although we seem to be many here, once you start making the timetable you realise we are few.”

“How come?” I asked.

“Look here, the HM has no classes, and since you are the deputy, I have had to reduce your classes to only six,” she answered.

“In fact I should not be having any class. My job is to supervise teachers, not to teach.”

“I will see how I can work out that,” she answered. She went on, “Besides you and the HM, there are other teachers that can’t be given many classes.”

“Like which ones?”

“Kuya told me to exempt him from any classes since he is busy looking for a transfer.”

“Who approved that? I am directing you to give him classes. Who is he to refuse classes? If he gets a transfer fine but as long as he is still in this school and as long as I am the Deputy Headmaster, he must eat chalk,”

She went on. “You know Saphire, giving him a lot of classes is a waste of time, as he is rarely in school.”

“What of Eric, Oscar and youself?” I asked.

“Oscar has permission from the HM not to come on Tuesdays and to leave early on Thursdays. Eric is a church pastor and doesn’t come to school on Friday. As for me, you know I have classes at Maseno University every Friday.”

“This is serious!” I exclaimed. “Ok, do this, remove lesson from me and give to Kuya plus lessons from other teachers. Let me have the new timetable tomorrow.”

That day I told all the teachers that we would be having a new timetable the next day. “This new timetable will address all your concerns and I urge all of you to support it,” I said.

The new timetable was up on Thursday morning. On that day I had travelled to the county education office but I received SMSs from several teachers complaining about it. Nzomo and Ruth told me that nothing had changed while Ruth repeated her threat of not coming to school in the morning. I did not answer any of them.

When I arrived in school on Friday, Mrs Atika, Nzomo, Lena and Ruth all stormed my office.

“What is this you are doing to us?” they asked almost in unison.

Extra heads

“How come some teachers have full day off and we don’t have?” wondered Ruth.

“Ladies, we have asked for extra heads but before then let’s work with this as we find a solution.”

“We have lots of heads here so don’t cheat us,” said Lena, her bad hair notwithstanding.

“OK ladies, please allow me one more week to relook at the timetable and make further adjustments,” I said.

“That’s what you have been saying every time and yet we get even worse changes,” Lena protested.

“Hata afadhali Kuya, at least he doesn’t promise heaven,” said Ruth.

“That’s true, Kuya alikuwa anatuambia tu ukweli,” said Atika.

“We are wasting our time here,” said Nzomo. “Let’s get out of here. We will go to class when we want, not when Dre and his girlfriend Sella want,” she said and left the office, the other three in tow.

Most of the classes were not attended to that day. This reached the HM who sent me an SMS asking for an explanation. I texted her back and told her that there were a few unco-operative teachers who were insubordinating my good work. I sought her help in dealing with some of the teachers. She responded: “Si you fighted so herd to be deputy. Sought that problem without involving me Mr. Deputy Headmaster!”

If teachers here think that Dre is a cat, they must know he is just a rained-on lion. Come tomorrow heads will roll. I am no longer campaigning to be Deputy HM, I am the Deputy Headmaster of Mwisho wa Lami Primary School. Instructions must be obeyed!

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