Teaching Discipline Beyond the Classroom: A Reflection on Staff and Student Responsibilities

It's disheartening to witness teachers, who should be role models, disregarding the school's rules and regulations. The official start time for staff on duty is 7:00 a.m., and for those who aren't, the latest they should be at school is 7:45 a.m. Unfortunately, many teachers now arrive much later, sometimes not even until 8:15 a.m. The frustrating part is that they expect to avoid consequences, even though they're well aware of their tardiness.

While everyone understands the economic difficulties in the country, such as the high cost of transportation eating into our salaries, the director has given us some relief. We've been allowed to come to work just three days a week instead of the usual five. Yet, even with this flexibility, some teachers still arrive late. Is it too much to ask for punctuality?

Just this morning, I arrived at school at 7:00 a.m. sharp. I was organizing the students for the morning devotion and oversaw the cleaning of the school premises and classrooms. To my surprise, one of the senior staff strolled in around 8:30 a.m. and had the nerve to ask if I had been sitting idly in my office. I couldn’t hold back my frustration. "I've been on my feet since I got here," I told him. "I've been making sure the students are doing what they should be."

Today was also the day for our literacy and debate activities. I had assigned the students their topic well in advance so they could rehearse and be ready. When it came time for their presentations, I noticed they were struggling. Instead of understanding their points, they memorized their entire speeches and missed some keywords. After their presentations, I gave them constructive feedback on where they went wrong and how they could improve.

Being Wednesday, we also had our co-curricular activities. The principal had already arranged for the Man O' War instructors to train interested students, while others would join different clubs such as the Jet Club, Press Club, and Art and Culture. Today was just for students to choose which club they wanted to join, and the full activities will begin next week.

The Man O' War instructors arrived early, about an hour before the training started. Many students, particularly boys, were eager to join. However, the principal decided that female students should not participate because all the instructors were male. I believe this decision was made to protect the girls, though I’m sure some would have loved to join. Once the training began, the students thoroughly enjoyed it, even though some were sore from their first experience with physical drills.