The assistant principal’s excesses
The topic of the day is the timetable, which the assistant principal deformed. The principal instructed him to prepare it for the first time. He was doing their hours spread every day of the week in the morning and evening, hiding his obstinacy behind the interests of the students. The professors protested and the principal asked them to agree with each other to solve the problems of the timetable. The principal thought that the administration exists to facilitate the educational process, the students first, then the teachers and finally the administration. The assistant principal believed that the administration ought to be first and that everyone must follow and serve.
This is not the first time that the assistant principal has abused his powers. The principal commissioned him last year to facilitate the printing of the high school magazine, supervised by a committee of students and teachers of which my uncle and I were members. We delivered the magazine's topics and drawings to the assistant principal. He deleted the names of the students who prepared the cultural, recreational, sports and artistic corners, as well as the names of the creators of poets, painters and calligraphers. He replaced them with the high school administration. I said to him in protest; "It's the students who did the magazine and not the administration, so why did you erase their names?"
- "It's a collective action and it's on behalf of high school, not on behalf of individuals."
- "Collective action does not need to deny the efforts of individuals, but must highlight the work of each of them. Students will not buy the magazine if they do not see their names".
- "We will force them to buy it, and we will deduct a Dinar from the purse of each of them."
- "If you can force them to buy it, you cannot force them to read it".
- "It is important to publish a magazine on behalf of high school and that officials know our activity". He answered me with determination that I had to resort to the principal who was angry and who had summoned him and heard his arguments. He then scolded him: "I have charged you to oversee the printing of the magazine and not to interfere with what does not concern you. Instead of encouraging the students to develop their activities, you caused their disappointment and stole their work".
The assistant principal apologized to the principal in a low voice for his mistake, saying that his intention was good and that he had worked hard but he was wrong. He was one of the subordinates, who is very small in front of his superiors and turns into a devouring ogre in front of his subordinates. The principal is well aware of his hypocrisy and his degradation before senior officials in the Ministry of Education. This one has disowned the harshness of the principal and has appeared before them as a man of flexibility, ready to answer any desire if he takes the direction. His flexibility stems from its absolute freedom, to move in all directions without hitting any barrier. He has no taboos or red lines that limit his movement and annoy him. If he takes direction, things would go differently and he will be one of their pawns, they would move it as they please. The principal made himself blind and ignorant to the intrigues of the assistant principal. "The true leader is the one who sometime plays ignorant," as Laroussi always told him. He realizes that if leaders decide to change the head in high school, at least at this point, they will look for another softer head rather than the tail to place it. Perhaps the little body of the assistant principal and his yellow face, despite the fatty meals he takes and the pimples that fill his forehead and cheeks, suggest that something is not right inside. His case embarrassed the doctors. They find no organic cause for that. His dark eyes, mixed with hate, suggest that he is not at peace with himself. Perhaps because he could not satisfy his greed and his passion for power, and envied the most capable.
Abdellah Khammar
An extract taken from the novel: Entry bell to class