The Blind Leading The Blind

I am assured that to provide continuity on my arrival Ms J (Head of Early Years) and Mr Z (Advanced Teacher and newly appointed Deputy Director and Head of Upper School) will continue at the school and will make up my Primary Management Team - my witty acronym. 

Ms J Is South African, and along with myself, is the only white face amongst the thirty plus teaching staff. She has diligently developed her department over the last four years. Mr Z has been at the school since its inception seven years ago and is to take responsibility for the Upper Primary staff. I am delighted to have their local knowledge to guide me into my new role, most especially at the start of Staff Induction Fortnight. However it is not to be. 

Ms J has to return to South Africa for medical treatment that she has had put off to enable her to run the Summer School and Mr Z has been asked by the school’s Executive Director (and my Boss) to set up a new school in Bahir Dar. I find myself at the helm of in-service training and the induction programme for the thirty members that make up the teaching staff. Talk about the blind leading the blind! I am bitterly upset and disappointed that i find out this information 48 hours before the week is due to begin.  I had scattered the workload between myself and my managers, and drafted it several times to ensure it has a balance of INSET, classroom preparation and planning.

I share my feelings with my Boss via an email in the late evening pointing out that if we expect teaching staff to attend, managers as role-models should be present also.

Early the following morning my Boss turns up into my office for the very first time, both furious and tearful. I try to point out that i’m flexible but i need forewarning, but it’s not a pleasant scene. I love and respect my English-born Boss (a complete visionary who has been involved in Ethiopian education since the 1970s), and it hurts me to the core that it has distressed her deeply, and i’m full of remorse.

Post Script: Mr Z turns up a few days into the programme on the urgent request of my Boss, and Ms J. returns at the end of the first week. I reprimand them and then put them on the back-foot. I inform them in no uncertain terms that they have a duty and responsibility to the primary school alone, and lecture them on the importance of being a role model. What a bastard boss i am? I'd hate to work for myself.