To add to all these very urgent issues Ministry of education had changed the name of school and informed me to attend to all the issues related to it. It’s easy to the Ministry to say we have changed the name of school yet not to give any necessary support to get other related things to be done. I said officially we cannot perform in another name unless we receive an official document which confirms that. The first thing which I received in this regard was the name of the school printed on a plastic sheet. Further the name was printed incorrectly on it according to the school registration certificate they sent me about two months after that. I did not use anything related to change of name before I received the official school registration certificate. The issue of change of name became a very serious issue for the community. Further the community was divided in this view as those who claim to be the people who named the school still exist and they along with close relatives and friends did not support the idea of change of name. Further I came to know that people from the ministry of education including the deputy minister had come to the island to discuss about the name of the school and they could not arrive at any conclusions at that time. Soon I received a big written document which indicated that I may not be able to stay in the post, if I continued supporting the idea of change of name. However, by the time all parents knew how much input I gave and how much I devoted to the school. Islanders sending away principals they dislike for any reason was common in Maldives and I heard the story of a principal being sent out of the island and put in a boat by rowdies in an island during that time. My family was a little concerned about my situation as that incident occurred during those days.
In the first weekend I had inaugurated the PTA (Parent Teacher Association of the School) and promised the parents that the school board would be inaugurated soon. However the matter lasted for a long time as the two members to be assigned by the ministry of education was not confirmed. It was finally approved and sent after I personally forwarded the issue to the state minister of the province and to the new superintendent of education for the province. As the PTA was in function and parents in the PTA committee working close to me as my intension was to give them more opportunities to be involved, I decided to forward the matter of the anonymous letter being sent to my home. The Vice president of PTA and the young committee worked swiftly to bring that problem to an end and within a week after the letter came to me it was solved.
As soon as we received official documents regarding change of name of the school, we had to stop using the official stamp and letter head and only official identification for some time was my signature .However we worked swiftly to attend the matters related to it. What is interesting is that everything is interconnected. With the change of name school mission, vision, flag, badge, uniform, colour, school houses, division of students to houses, making arrangements for parents to get ties and badges, making school stamps and letter head, school email id, were connected. It’s easy to show a list and say that these things were done but to do these things staying in an island far away from Male’ the capital where all facilities and services are available is not an easy task especially within such a short period. I received a lot of assistance from then President of Youth Association of that Island Mr. Mohamed Rasheed as he works in Male’. Leaving aside designing things getting approval from the ministry would not have been so easy if I did not get his support. Mission,vision,flag, colours of school, houses of school, badge , uniform and school stamps were confirmed after a series of meetings with members of PTA , teachers and class representatives. Nothing was decided my own. Everything was planned and designed and shown to them and changed according to their suggestions before being confirmed. After confirmation I made arrangements with tailors in Male’ the capital to get the badges and ties done for the school and made PTA responsible for initial payment in order to make it easy for the parents to purchase. We made sure that 2010 began with all necessary arrangements in relation to change of name of school.
(second experience as a school leader-4)
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