The Headmasters' Cry for Help!

Please bear with us! We are also under pressure from above, this is not just a statement from a few principals but a plea to everyone.

Editor's note: Faced with the sometimes unspeakable difficulties of principals, author Nam Phuong believes that we need to have a more impartial and sympathetic view of them.

Because, many times they also want to speak up, to reflect the hidden corners, the existing shortcomings but cannot change anything because everything is imposed from above and they can only follow.

“The principal is just someone who carries out orders from above. Therefore, sometimes they want to reduce the burden on teachers regarding records, competitions, competition targets… but that is a violation of professional regulations.

When the superiors blame the principal, he will be the first to suffer. After all, our education is under the management and control of the superiors, so we must follow everything, absolutely obey and silently accept it," said a close friend who is currently the principal of an elementary school.

Please have a sympathetic view of the hardships and difficulties of the principals. Photo source: tuoitre.vn.

This was also demonstrated in the online meeting of 700 primary school principals that the Hanoi Department of Education organized online in the 2014-2015 school year on implementing student assessment according to Circular 30.

Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training Pham Xuan Tien had to exclaim: "I don't see any head of the bridge registering to speak. It's impossible for more than 700 principals to not have any concerns.

Meanwhile, the implementation of Circular 30 on changing the assessment method for primary school students from grading to comments is still not smooth, the mechanical comments leading to teachers' overload are partly the fault of the principals.

Why don't principals dare speak up?

Only insiders can understand this reason best. A principal said that "they (the Department of Education) hold the power to inspect, the power to give orders, the power to always be right.

Therefore, if the principal dares to react, "misfortune" will come at any time.

Which principal is not afraid of school inspection, from thematic inspection, professional inspection to financial inspection, inspection of implementation of campaigns and emulation movements... Inspection is like "sweeping the house to get rid of the trash".

They say right is right and wrong is wrong "the mouth of the mandarin is made of iron and steel" has never been wrong.

Not to mention that some principals want achievements, so keeping silent to score points with superiors must be done thoroughly.

Someone once commented that "teachers fear principals like tigers" and similarly, "principals also fear department staff (not to mention department heads) like tigers."

Their words are like "holy decrees" and whether right or wrong, the principals must immediately carry them out.

Because of fear, many people try every way to please their superiors such as flattery, favors, gifts, envelopes... They keep the collective name because the things used to "offer" are school money.

The principal explained to the teachers that “we must be diplomatic so that the school will not be made difficult.” But everyone knows that the principals are simply afraid of being scolded, questioned, and criticized for all sorts of things, so they use the collective’s benefits to buy fame and peace for themselves, but the teachers themselves cannot ask for any help.

A retired principal confided: “Before, I always wondered why I did everything well but still did not satisfy my superiors. They found every way to find fault and bully me.

Looking at other schools, sometimes they can't do as well as me but they are always praised, if they make mistakes they are only gently reminded.

It was not until I transferred to that school as principal that I discovered that the vouchers for many years had a large amount of money for entertaining guests.

The accountant said that was money to buy gifts and envelopes for the bosses in the department on holidays, Tet, and during inspections.

I just realized why I don't like them. Because I have never given gifts to anyone, and I have never used collective money to do so."

But, there are also many principals who always understand the hardships and difficulties of teachers.

They can only share and encourage teachers to try to implement professional regulations well, but cannot exempt or reduce records, cannot eliminate competition targets, and even more so cannot turn their backs on competitions, which they themselves believe are all formalities and sometimes useless.

A principal said, "teachers fear the principal, the principal fears the department, the department fears the office... they are all the same fear."

We understand, the Department of Education "shouts fire" but when meeting the Department of Education, it must be as soft as a chi chi when taken out of water.

From that statement, we can understand that no matter how much teachers condemn, how much public opinion attacks the principal for abusing his power, or how much pressure is put on teachers, nothing can be changed when everything comes from above.

Need to change from top to bottom

We always call for educational reform, but the proposed measures are not really feasible. Therefore, although the shortcomings and problems of education have been pointed out, there is still no “specific medicine”.

The reason is that instead of reforming from top to bottom, people intend to reform from bottom up, so the shortcomings and problems of education for many years are still there.

As simple as wanting to eliminate achievement targets, the Ministry of Education must not bring the targets to the grassroots level. To eliminate the problem of sitting in the wrong class, the Ministry of Education must eliminate the universal standards, training effectiveness, universalization at the right age... To eliminate the burden of records and documents, and to eliminate competitions, the Ministry must have written instructions and regulations.

That way, the Department cannot force it down to the Room, and then the Room cannot force it back to the school anymore.

Please sympathize with us! We are also under a lot of pressure from above. This is no longer a statement from a few Principals but a plea and a request to everyone.

According to Giaoduc.net