Principal slaps teacher in FCT School?

The story recently carried by the media that a principal in one of the secondary schools in the FCT slapped a teacher sounded very incredible to many professionals and stakeholders in the thankless job of teaching. Considering the far-reaching effect of such act of gross misconduct on the self-worth of the victim, his colleagues as […]

The story recently carried by the media that a principal in one of the secondary schools in the FCT slapped a teacher sounded very incredible to many professionals and stakeholders in the thankless job of teaching. Considering the far-reaching effect of such act of gross misconduct on the self-worth of the victim, his colleagues as well as the teaching profession, it was not surprising that other teachers in the same school protested against the bully principal.

According to the report which appeared on page 20 of the daily Trust newspaper of Thursday November 24, 2016; Malam Musa Suleiman is a teacher at the Junior Secondary School, Kuje, in the FCT. The teacher had taken permission from the school’s vice principal to take four students to assist him in making arrangements for the inter-house sports competition scheduled to hold at the GGSSS Kuje.

Before the return of the teacher and the four students to school at about 5.00pm, one of the parents of the students had phoned the principal to complain that his child was yet to return home. The principal, Mrs. KallaYuwana, then called the teacher on phone to meet her in the school. When the teacher came, the principal asked him to kneel down. Readers should help me ask Mrs. Yuwana when physical sanction became part of the disciplinary measures defined by the civil service rules.

When Malam Suleiman, a grade level 12 officer, refused to put his knees on the ground, the principal thought of a tougherpenalty and allegedly slapped him twice. Twice? Maybe, the teacher remembered the Biblical teaching and thus turned the other chick to the principal after receiving the first round of thesmack. Out of sheer model of obedience, the teacher later went to the principal’s residence to apologise but was reportedly humiliated by Mrs. Yuwana who walked Malam Suleiman out of her house. Even for this writer who, as a teacher, has spent four decades inthe teaching profession across all levels of the system, I find this Malam Suleiman exceptionally ‘Malamic’ in the service of knowledge.

The question that keeps crossing my mind is: Was Mrs.Yuwana’s action out of overzealousness? If you think it is, it must be an off track kind of exuberance.It is also possible that she is an ardent admirer of some public officer who, in the past, became ‘famous’ in the news when they slapped fellow colleagues. They may include asenator from Niger State who slapped a female colleague in the chambers of the National Assembly.A week after thisepisode, another female member of the House of Representative slapped a male colleague.Nonetheless, this writer rather insinuates that the principal’s unfortunate action must have sprout from some supercilious personality traits.

Mrs.Yuwana is lucky that God was on her side as nothing worse than the protest staged byMalam Suleiman’s colleagues resulted from her gross act of misconduct. If the teacher, as a consequence of the assault, had fainted or died, the principal would have regretted being a school principal as she could by now be ‘cooling off’ in one of the prison cells in Kuje. About two decades ago while I was a teacher in one of the federal government colleges in the country, a Vice Principal (VP) in the schoolwas once detained in a police cell for an act similar to that of Mrs. Yuwana. The VP in his usual style of reprimand hit a student on the head with the stick in his hand, and blood started gushing out in a manner that was indeed scaring.Although the student recovered from the injury, the VP vowed (as far as his body language revealed) never to be violent in his career again probably because of the nerve-racking experience he went through.

No matter how provoked or the gravity of the perceived offence of a teacher or any other category of colleagueswithin the school system appeared, no circumstance authorizes a principal to sanction a staff member with assault. A principal who isso professionally deficient as to slap a teacher shows his or her crass incompetenceasa school administrator. In fact, such a person does not deserve to be in leadership positions. I do not imaginethat thereis a school principal in FCT or elsewhere in Nigeria today who is not a graduate without the least teaching qualification; meaning that he/she must have studied some elements of school management techniques and leadership models for principals.

Even if the teacher were guilty asconvicted by Mrs. Yuwana, she should know as a senior staff in the civil service that there are laid down disciplinary procedures for sanctioning erring teachers.This, the principal should know even with a tangential knowledge of managerial skills in school administration.Oneactually wonders how crude teachers such as Mrs. Yuwanaget promoted and posted to schools as principals. Since the behavior of some principals does not portray them as leaders with minimum knowledge of the qualities of an effective school administrator, it maythus be necessary for educational policy makers and administrators to introduce aptitude tests for teachers before they are appointed as principals.

Unlike medicine and law, teaching is yet to become fully professionalized in Nigeria. If teaching were really a professional career, the likes of Mrs. Yuwanawould not be retained by the system. Thisfunction, which is currently being performedby employers of teachers, should have been one of the operational mandates of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), and by extension, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).In climes where teaching is truly a profession and thus enjoys its rightfulidentity, disciplinary actions are unfailingly taken against principals and teachers who exhibit unprofessional conductto precludethem from practicing. May Allah (SWT) save education in Nigeria from the unethical flawsof those who arethe system’s primary actors, amin.