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The writer is an educationist based in Kasur City. He can be reached at m.nadeemnadir777@gmail.com
In the workplace politics (WP) in educational institutions, nexus currency always demonetises the currency of performance. Power groups emerge through cliques and clouts based on subjects, castes, creeds or vested interests. They arm-twist the heads of institutions to get undue favours or to spite colleagues who do not buy into their agenda.
The educationists aver that the heydays of WP are when the administration seat lies vacant and the senior among the staff helms the affairs. What rules the roost then is nothing but favouritism and vendetta. Without any formal training in institutional leadership, organisational psychology or conflict resolution, an in-charge head is ill-equipped to manage staff dynamics or to create a positive institutional culture.
Ingratiating banqueting is another successful ploy to hijack the chair. Dinners and treats are thrown lavishly to expand the clout or garner the head’s approval for unfair demands (e.g., excessive leaves of absence or ex-Pakistan leave) and preferential permission to join non-teaching duties (e.g., board exam invigilation or practicals exam conduction), which keep teachers out of educational institutions for months.
The head of the institution, sometimes, himself resorts to the colonial ‘divide and rule’ ploy by infiltrating his moles to create misunderstanding and rancour among the staff. The objective is to parry off criticism of his administration of the institution run on his whims. At public schools, the hierarchical animus is triggered between junior and senior cadres, e.g., elementary school teachers vs secondary school teachers. It is meant to create a pressure group to quell all opposition.
Uncertainty of roles and duties on campus is the worst progeny spawned by WP. A politically manoeuvred change of subjects and classes in the middle of or close to the academic session is always imminent. Small classes and easier subjects are appropriated inequitably. The apprehensions, conflicts and intimidation cause undue stress to educators who are not politics savvy; ultimately, they resort to quiet quitting on their professional duties. Winston Churchill says, “In war you can only be killed once. In politics you can be killed many times.”
The internal politics demoralise teachers by depriving them of their due rights and misdirecting accolades to the undeserving. Such a milieu prevents real collaboration. Teachers and administrators are hellbent on inflating their egos rather than mentoring each other. The blowback is the burnout syndrome – too much involvement in politicking dilutes the care and concern needed for the core academic and administrative areas. The institution’s efficiency falters, resulting in lower productivity of high-quality stuff and a decline of the institution itself.
Teachers going no-holds-barred involve even students in school politics. A group of hooligans is created and supported to be used as a nuisance against the other class teachers or, sometimes, to cause indiscipline at the institution to derail the head’s plans and policies. Teachers favour those students who join their academies by leaking tests to them, giving undue credit in the marking of scripts or by relaxing discipline on them.
The antidote to the organisational toxicity is to nurture the musketeer attitude – ‘the attitude among members of a team that they are all in the same boat and that they will win or lose together as a team.’ The respect of a profession is directly proportional to its adherents’ self-respect, which they can gain by performing their professional duties without being involved in any underhand politicking. Better is ignorance than the knowledge that doesn’t let you be altruistic.
The moral triumph, however, rests with the legends of selfless pursuit of truth, who believe that the success achieved through WP proves ephemeral, while the fruits of professionalism are longlasting. The raison d’etre of teaching is to create a difference in the lives of students and sustain the education system at the cost of vested interests. The politics of a country is a macrocosm of workplace politics in its educational institutions. Hence, the imperative is to change both the path and the destination of the profession of teaching.
