Teachers panic, wet their pants over Matiangi’s impromptu visits to schools

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi’s unannounced visits to schools have thrown most teachers and schools head in panic mode. Most public schools head teachers in the country are finding themselves in a state similar to the one a mayor of a town in Russian writer and dramatist Nikolai Gogol’s classic play ‘The Government Inspector’ was in.

He had received intelligence that a senior government official was coming from Petersburg to inspect the town. The official was travelling incognito. To worsen the situation, the town was a total mess. Among many ills, the mayor and his officials were corrupt while the hospital had a doctor who didn’t understand a single word of the local language.

Education cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiangi’s habit of dropping in on schools unannounced is causing a lot of anxiety in most public schools. Then there is the pair of the two ladies at the helm of the TSC brandishing appraisal forms at teachers at every opportunity. Many teachers in public schools, just like the mayor in Golgol’s classic, have panicked. It is no longer business as usual. Since opening, Okonkwo has convened two staff meetings to strategize.

Okonkwo no longer leaves school after Friday morning assemblies as was his custom. He would leave every other Friday with the excuse of going to the TSC to look for teachers. Sometimes, he would not appear until Tuesday of the following week. I was shocked to find him in his office last week on Saturday.

Schola, our rumour mill caretaker, claims that he has even hired external auditors to ‘clean his books of accounts’. The rumour could be true since, Tom the bursar, no longer walks around with large sums of money as he used to. Donatta had even nicknamed him Mr. Cashbox. There were rumours that he was running a shylock business with the school’s funds.

Charm offensive

After getting the proposed teacher’s appraisal form, Okonkwo placed copies of the same in each teacher’s pigeon hole in the staffroom. An enlarged copy was posted on the staffroom’s notice board. The document clearly shows the marks to be awarded per; schemes of work, lesson notes, mark books and co-curricular activities among others.

The effect has been tremendous. Deadlines are met and morning assemblies are attended by all. Even colleagues like Thunder who had never met any deadline and once in a while ‘misplaced’ students’ scripts has changed. He has already handed in typed end of term exams. The science department which is always at war -- as happens in most schools -- has miraculously handed in their schemes of work. Schola claims the schemes were downloaded from the internet.

“Waalimu roundi hii wamekaliwa chapo (Teachers are in a lot of trouble this time around)”, summed up Donatta as she updated her mark book. Some teachers who last prepared a lesson plan when on teaching practice now have comprehensive lesson plans and updated lesson notes, while clubs that only existed on paper have been revived.

Madam Flo, the patron of the long dead Wild life club is asking Okonknwo to buy a DSTV decoder so that club members can watch The National Geographic Channel. The Debating Club too has been ‘resurrected’. The patron, Donatta, has already invited a neighbouring girls’ school for a debating contest. She is threatening to buy biscuits and juice for the occasion if Okonkwo refuses to honour her requisition.

Okonkwo has trimmed the fee structure too. Projects such as the construction of a swimming pool may never see the light of the day and Aeneas is proposing the money so far raised be channeled towards teacher motivation. And the principal’s office is on a charm offensive; every visitor is treated like a VIP. The scenes remind one of the reception parties for cruise ship tourists at the port of Mombasa. Long live Matiangi! socratesmwalim