According to the letter dated June 7, 2010, submitted by an unidentified research group to the MOE, the teachers at PHS have called an informal meeting to seek ways to “ease tensions, frustrations, discontent and angers among teachers that have been brewing for a year.” They have then decided to administer a survey to evaluate the performance of PHS management. Although the survey did not provide names and signatures of respondents, the letter said there were 36 Palauan and six foreign teachers who participated in the survey.The result showed dissatisfaction of respondents about the present management at PHS.
Among the grievances the teachers allegedly feel, as shown in the survey results, include unequal division of workload, lack of unity in school community, unfair treatment in school leadership, lack of recognition for distributions and nepotism, among others.
The letter also stated that the teachers who participated in the survey did not intend to discredit the principal, “But rather, we try to find a way where your leadership methods can shift to ease various kinds of concerns and discontent we continuously face at the workplace,” the letter said.
However, Prinicipal Tomoichi said the letter and the survey came as a surprise to her. “Nobody came to me to talk to me about these issues before,” Tomoichi said in an interview. “I always tell the teachers during staff meetings to come and talk to me in my office if they have issues and grievances.”
The principal feels that the teachers who initiated the survey are only resisting the changes that she’s implementing at PHS. “They are disappointed because I am doing my job,” said Tomoichi.
“What the principal is doing now is she’s going through her administration with strict government procedures,” Emery Wenty, Director of Bureau of Education, said in an interview. “Be on time to work, show basic grooming and dressing, don’t show up at work under the influence of alcohol, do your lesson plans.” Wenty said some of the teachers are used to the old ways. “I think that’s one of the reasons for this.”
Tomoichi said the policies that she’s implementing at PHS are not new. “These are rules that should’ve been implemented before.”
These issues, Wenty said, have been carried on from previous administration. “Then the principal came on board, and she tries to make some changes. That’s when this survey came out.”
Wenty said the principal only got on board in May last year
They could only speculate on the reasons why these teachers did it, said Wenty, because as far as MOE is concerned, the principal is doing a good job restoring quality of education at PHS.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if these are people who are unhappy about something personal,” Wenty said. “Maybe they were given AWOL because they didn’t show up at work. Maybe they got reprimanded because they came to work under the influence of alcohol. We can only speculate why this came out because we don’t know who they are and what they are after.”
According to Wenty, they did receive the letter before, but they decided to put it aside because they don’t know who to talk to. “We’re waiting for these people to come to us. But until now, we still don’t know who they are.”
Wenty added that the MOE understands some of the issues at PHS, especially with the new administration trying to improve the school, according to Wenty. “But unless they come forward and talk about it, we can’t address the issue,” Wenty said.
However, Wenty said the MOE is open for discussion.
Wenty said it’s always the case when reforms are being implemented. There is always resistance in many different forms.
