Submitted by Observing
The recent saga at Grantley Adam Memorial Secondary School has raised much passion and opinions. However, I put a different spin on it today. Everyone’s wrong.
Vendors
Vendors are allowed to sell at the discretion of the management of the school. If management says not today, not here, not now, then that’s what it is. A process must be followed for order to obtain. The vendors who still sold or came onto property despite being told not to were wrong.
Principal
The Principal is the chief cook and bottle washer at the school. He would have been aware of prior arrangements with vendors (i.e. precedent). He sits with the Board to make decisions (i.e should advocate for the good of his students and teachers). He was the one who communicated any decisions to vendors. Yet, he diminished his post to a security guard sitting at a gate running children away. Leaders solve problems. The Principal is wrong.
The Chairman / Board
A Board’s job is to ensure the Minister’s policies are carried out. The Minister via the government is “vendor friendly” and all about “entrepreneurship”. Also, any manager must take into consideration the conditions of the situation he/she manages. Clearly this chairman does not (uh wonder why). Any Board that is comfortable seeing their school dragged through the mud in the press, seeing children agitate and advocate, seeing average women losing money and up to now says nothing….They have have to be wrong.
The Ministry
In an eloquent written press release the Ministry sided with the school. The rule of law must obtain. But, while the rule of law obtains the problem remains. If the Ministry wants to duck behind the law and dodge the REAL issues in this saga, it is clear that they are rightly wrong.
The media
Papers must sell! And so we plaster photos of children on a fence, a Principal with an umbrella and a vendor in tears. BUT, wait a minute. Has the media reported on the connection between the chairman and the canteen concessionaire? Have they outlined the prior arrangements with vendors which sets a precedent? Have they researched or focused on the genuine concerns of the student or look at the impact on the school? Nope. Why bother about these things….papers must sell! The media is wrong.
And lastly the canteen.
Competition drives quality and price effectiveness. The students determined they wanted nothing to do with the canteen. By surreptitiously cutting out the competition without adjustment to operations or communicating with the clients (students), a revolt was all but ensured. I wonder who stands to benefit when the canteen profits. A canteen that’s comfortable being boycotted by students, watching them choose to be hungry, and insisting that the vendors MUST go HAS to be wrong.
When everyone is wrong…when communication goes wrong…when decision making starts wrong…when the motive is wrong……..The children suffer.
Everyone is wrong.
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