Principals must account for budget

THE EDITOR: It is good that the Ministry of Education is going to give more power to principals. It is better that this is not going to happen until 2006. This will allow enough time for the training of principals or for those who cannot be trained to leave. The shortcomings of some principals are evident in their setting of financial priorities, the awarding of contracts and the supervision of work under these contracts. At my own school one can note the following glaring examples although a sum of more than $1.4 million was spent over the past year or so:

(1) The ceiling in the staff room is crumbling.
(2) The computer room has been air-conditioned but there is a wide open space left by the contractor on the two long side walls.
(3) The work tables in the kitchen of the home economics block have been tiled to match the mountains in the background and are unusable.
(4) The labs could not be used for heat-based experiments until the eighth week of this term. It is now functioning only because a contractor was willing to do the work on credit.
(5) The hearing impaired continue to occupy cramped conditions adjacent to the malfunctioning toilets. All this after the expenditure of $1.4 million in one year.

The government has taken a step in the right direction by making a sizeable budgetary allocation to education. Much of this can be wasted. Principals must not be allowed to reign in schools as in their private fiefdoms. They must be reined in.

GABRIEL SOLOMON
Staff Representative
El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive School