OPEN Days were very important at Springdale Schools. For the management, it was an opportunity to update parents on academic activities. A staff meeting was held prior to each edition. It needed no reminder. teachers and non-academic members of staff knew it was a day when they had to look their best, especially because they would have personal encounters with parents. Generally, Springdale encouraged-and in some cases, compelled-its teachers to look presentable. Some had even been fired for flouting dress code instructions: At the end of a session, the best-dressed teacher was identified and presented with an award.
The event was a promising moment for many teachers too, including the principal. It proved that the reward of teachers did not have to wait till they got to heaven. Some parents came with gifts, in cash and kind, for specific staff, especially class teachers. The Newman family was outstanding. Smart newman's mum, Mrs. Nike, would gift the school several packets of beverages. Her husband worked in one of the leading beverages companies. But Open Day was also dreaded by teachers because parents often came with trailer-loads of complaints. Any teacher who had offended' any pupil, genuinely or otherwise, deliberately or inadvertently, could receive packets of bottled anger.
Mr. Justin recalled an episode. Mrs. Evelyn Claire had sent for him, asking him to appear in her office urgently. With her was a parent, Mr. Wanye, seated in a chair in front of the MD's desk. Justin greeted the duo as he walked in. But the MD indicated she did not need any pleasantries. "Where is Fafore, the one that calls himself an English teacher?" she asked.
"In the staff room or in the class," the principal replied, sensing there was trouble.
"Wherever he is, whatever he is doing, find him! Tell him to hand over all school items in his care and disappear from the premises! Draft his sack letter and let me sign it within the next 30 minutes!" the MD bellowed.
Shocked, the principal looked Mr. Wanye in the eye, searching frantically for a clue. He saw none. Not in Mrs. Evelyn' face either. The parent did not betray any sympathy for the teacher about to be flung out of a job. Rather, he looked calm, reassured and pacified by the sack order.
If there was an instruction Justin hated, it was issuing a sack letter. He had done so a number of times. The management rarely sacked anyone directly. It executed what he considered the dirty job through his office. He always felt pained when anyone had to lose a job, especially for issues he felt were not grave. There were times when no one could really help matters: such as in the case of the teacher who, the previous term, was caught altering a student's result for a fee. Some had been sacked for perennial incompetence and child abuse, suspected or proven. Mr. Justin remembered that the management, through his office, had also booted out some whom, he believed, were either not seriously guilty or not guilty at all-just helpless victims of circumstance or even conspiracy. Whatever the offence or its magnitude, Justin always felt a void in his heart every time a colleague lost his or her job. Perhaps, that was because he had experienced joblessness before. He understood what it meant for a family man like Fafore.
What Mr. Justin considered the most embarrassing moment of his life happened while he was out of job. An ugly situation had forced him out of a school where he worked. He had no savings, and no new employment was in sight. At the height of the financial drought, he 'ate' the €50 electricity tariff he collected on behalf of tenants in the crowded face-me-l-face-you house, where he lived. To cover up the deed, he lied that he had remitted the cash.
But as the Hausa say, kullum ta barawo, rana daya ta mai kaya: every day is for the thief, one day for the owner. One day, Electricity men arrived and disconnected the power cable. Then truth dawned on everyone. The furious tenants rained insults, curses and mockery on Oga Tisa, as he was called. The most aggressive complainant, that God- forsaken day, was Mathew, the no-nonsense wife of Mr. Adio, a co-tenant. The short devil grabbed a full bowl of elubo, cassava powder. Since her hand could not reach the headquarters of his skull, she jumped, rocketing her stumpy frame off the ground, and dunked the bowl on the teacher's head. Immediately, Mr. Bepo became a 'white' man. And as though the cassava flour baptism was not enough, Mathew spontaneously burst into singing:
Oga Tisa, ole! O na owo ina! Oga Tisa, ole! O na owo ina! (Mr. Teacher is a thief! He has spent the electricity tariff!)
"Madam, what is the matter with Fafore?" the principal asked the MD.
"Mr. Justin, please, do what I asked you to, first, then come back later with a query. Or you kuku send the query to me electronically." Rather than get to his office and send for Fafore the principal went straight to the staff room. According to an Igbo proverb, min oku anaghi ang ogologo ogena ire, (warning that hot water does not stay too long on the tongue) The English teacher was not in the staff room: he was in the SSS 2 class. That meant Mr Justin would have to do something he very much detested, stopping a lesson halfway.
"Good moming, class, the principal greeted, as he walked in. And without taking an excuse from Mr. Fafore, he addressed the students: "I need to urgently have a word with your teacher in my office. Be responsible while he is away. And before he could ask: "Am I making sense?" some students had, teasingly, helped him out, while others chorused, laughingly: "Yes!"
Fafore did not like the interruption, but he had to obey his boss. He thought about handing over his note to the class prefect, so that the students could copy it, while he attended to the principal. But this was no longer permitted at Stardom. The management stopped it, years back, after a parent sued the school.
The parent, an accountant with an oil company, learnt that his daughter, who was blessed with very good handwriting, was asked to scribble a note on the marker board, for others to copy. He had advanced counts bordering on exploitation, cheating, oppression, and visual exploitation. His lawyers further argued that the teacher was indirectly imposing a career on the girl. According to them, she might become influenced to become a teacher, whereas her parents wanted her to study Medicine. On the allegation of visual exploitation, the parent said the teacher subjected his daughter to corrosive eyes that might have sexually leered at her as she stood in front of the class.
The matter was eventually settled out of court, after a lot of pleas by the school. And
while the student was compensated with one tuition-free term, the teacher was
suspended without pay for three months. The English teacher remembered the case: the principal too did. Fafore decided to let sleeping dogs lie and even snore as they liked, by leaving the students to themselves.
"Mr. Fafore, what issue do you have with the management?" Justin asked, earnestly, when both men got to the Principal's Office.
"The management...? 1 have no problem with anyone," Fafore answered.
When did you get to school today?" "
"7:30am."
"Did you flog any pupil?"
"No. I don't cane students."
"Did you have any argument with any parent or the management? Or when actually did you get to school today?"
"Principal, why these questions? Why would I argue with anyone? You know, i hardly come late.
Candidly, the principal knew Fafore hardly arrived late to school. Although he lived quite far away, he planned his itinerary in such a way that he, rather, arrived very early. Like many other members of staff, he could not afford the rent charged in the Berkeley area. A two-bedroom flat could cost more than two thousand dollars, with most landlords demanding two-year rent upfront, besides other expensive charges Successive governments had tried to compel landlords to charge less and give less stringent terms. Official declarations were made to that effect, but they were rarely enforced or were simply unenforceable. This led some critics to believe the authorities were not sincere. They argued that the same governments that claimed they wanted landlords to charge lower rents were fond of slamming high prices on their housing schemes. When a two-bedroom flat built by the government cost about €10 thousand , how would the masses benefit from it?