TidBits .018 - 'Ora et Labora' (Pray and Work- The motto of St. Xavier's High School- Moira)
The following reports appeared in Herald: 1) July 22, 2002 " Bright student accuses best teacher of mental torture" 2) July 24, 2002 " Give back our teacher, cry Moira students" These two reports and the others that have appeared in The Navhind Times have been the result of the internal managerial deficiencies of the St. Xavier's High School, Moira in the handling of the teacher -student - PTA relationships. There was no reason for this foul-up , which is now threatening to spill into the Courts, if the school management had done just what it is supposed to do i.e. contain the conflict within the four walls of the school and judiciously solve the same to the satisfaction of all concerned. When I talk about the school management, I talk about the Secretary of the DSE, the manager (principal) of the school who is the parish priest of Moira church and the headmistress of the school. If one goes through the chronology of events (not included here) one will get the drift that led to this foul-up. I had sought to get the overall picture concerning this conflict, being an ex-student of this school and also by virtue of personally knowing the families of the students concerned, by meeting with the headmistress well before the foul-up. After the concerned teacher was transferred, in my telephone call to the DSE secretary I had told him that the transfer of the primary school teacher immediately following the transfer of the controversial teacher, would be viewed as victimization, specially, since the primary school teacher was the blood relation of one of the victim students. The conflict graduated into the parents of the two concerned supposedly bright students engaging legal counsel and wanting to take the fight into the courts. In the following mediatory proceedings between the Legal counsel engaged by the concerned parents, the DSE and the Education Department, the fact that has come to light is that the headmistress has been very actively seeking revenge for not having gotten her way to retain the controversial teacher and has been making it difficult for maintaining the calm in the atmosphere within the school. There are quite a few senior teachers in the school. Not all seem to toe the line of the headmistress in her support for the controversial teacher. The second news item captioned "Give Back our teacher, cry Moira students" was infact the faux pas by the headmistress to get media/public support. This becomes evident (as per the newspaper report) that the student of 8, 9 &10 standards were involved in the protest. This is highly improbable since the controversial teacher was the undergraduate teacher and her teaching jurisdiction was upto standard 7. Infact, no such protest was seen coming forth when the primary teacher was transferred on a 24 hour notice period. I am given to understand that DSE has a rule that any teacher who is an ex-student of the school and is a villager, gets consideration over the other non complying teaching staff as far as transfers are concerned. Also, that such transfers, if necessary, require a notice period of minimum 48 hours.The 24 hour notice period here becomes relevant when the recipient school where the primary teacher was transferred to, had not filled this vacancy for more than 4 months, even after the schools had started in June, 2002. Besides, there was a surplus teacher available at St. Xavier's High School who was from Aldona and who could have been transferred to 'Khorjuem ' in Aldona, just as well. Inspite of threats that the concerned two boys will not pass in the final examinations (9th), both have done exceedingly well. The parents of the two boys are however complaining that the adding up of the marks and arriving at the respective percentages is deliberately flawed to bring down their relevant percentages, a matter that is likely to be taken up to the Education Department. The sad part is that a very senior Maths teacher who has completed 27 years in this school and who is in-charge of the school faculty and who has only a few years to retire is being transferred to far away Curtorim (Salcete). This lady teacher is a permanent resident of Bardez of as many years as is her service in this school. The pretext for the transfer is that her permanent address is given as Salcete. No consideration has been given to the basis that she has no permanent roots in Salcete any longer. Further, in May 2002, this same teacher was short listed by the DSE for the post of the headmistress of a school in Betalbatim which she had declined, due to the school's distant location. Therefore, this transfer order to Curtorim smacks more of victimization than a normal routine transfer. The concerned teacher is believed to have prayed for a stay on this transfer with the Education Department. The Asst. Dir. Of Education has confirmed that such a transfer of a senior teacher is highly irregular in so far as such transfers must be restricted to within 15 to 20 kilometer radius from the school of origin. It is clearly apparent that the principal (parish priest) and the DSE secretary are very supportive of the headmistress and her actions. Infact, in his eagerness to support the headmistress, the DSE Secretary has overlooked the very basic rule of the DSE with respect to the employment of blood relations being posted in the same school. We believe that the rule does not permit two or more blood relations to be posted in the same school. As far as St. Xavier's High School, Moira is concerned, the headmistress has been posted to this school inspite of her own sister being there already. Questioned about this particular oversight by the DSE, the Asst. Director of Education has feigned ignorance of such a stipulation and has gone on record to say that the Education Department does not have such a rule and would never be supportive of the same. The DSE Secretary, when asked about this rule, has gone on record to say that it is an un-written rule followed by the Diocesan Society. He further stressed that no two blood relations were appointed in any school during his tenure as the DSE Secretary. When pointed out that the headmistress of St. Xavier's High and another teacher in the same school are blood sisters and that the headmistress was appointed as headmistress at this school very much during his tenure , his reaction was one of surprise and has gone on record of saying that he did'nt know t he two were sisters. Some of the parents who are in the know of the procedures to be followed in the conduct of the PTA meetings are complaining that the conduct of such meetings are flawed. That no proper agendas are set for such meetings. That the participating members of the PTA are made to sign their attendance on plain sheet of papers, with no PTA minutes register in sight. That the meetings start without reading and confirming the minutes of the previous PTA meeting. This flawed procedure followed by the school has been reported to the Asst. Dir of Education who has promised to look into the matter on priority basis. The other irregularity given voice to by some parents is that the Chairperson of the PTA has to be a parent. However at St. Xavier's High, it is not so. The headmistress herself doubles up as the chairperson of the PTA. Questioned on this, the Asst. Dir of Education has assured that there is a provision for such an option vide a circular from the Education Department which has given clearance to the head of the institution and that this diversion may be justified. However, DSE Secretary, when made aware of these irregularities insisted that the conduct of the PTA meetings and PTA itself was the responsibility of the Education Department but agreed that as far as he was concerned, a parent must be the chairperson of the PTA. With the impending transfer of the Maths teacher , we can expect a few other teachers who do not toe the line of the headmistress will see transfer orders soon. One thing is amply apparent here. In active collusion with the DSE Secretary and to a lesser extent with the principal, the headmistress of St. Xavier's High School is engaged in a game of chess where the weaker pawns are sought to be eliminated to perpetuate a rule of sycophancy. St. Xavier's High School deserves a better transparent management and it would serve the DSE best to first of all implement its own written or unwritten rule and transfer one of the sisters, preferably the headmistress herself to put an end to the present atmosphere of confrontation, justification and egocentrism. And, since the DSE had found it fit to promote the maths teacher to the headmistress' post, she should be given charge of the school as its headmistress. The second best thing the DSE can do is to relieve the present DSE Secretary of his post as he seems to be a person who cannot take impartial and hard decisions when such decisions are called for and is likely to be wrongly influenced. This post should be given to the ex-principal of the St. Xavier' s College, Mapusa, Fr. Antimo Gomes, who must feel like a fish out of water serving in the Church of Panjim after a prolonged period of academic service in the educational institution of repute. Coming back to the school motto, I would'nt know much about the praying bit of it, but what seems to be convincing is that there is a lot of work done - in the wrong direction. Nevertheless wait and watch, we must, to see tomorrow's declaration of the SSC results. The concerned persons are: Fr. Tony Salema (Secretary DSE) Fr. Manuel Fernandes (Principal SXHS-Moira) Mr. L.M.T. Fernandes (Asst. Dir. Education). Ms. Fatima Antao (Headmistress SXHS-Moira) Cheers Floriano ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
