Khalifa Tales (contd.)

A Contemporary History of ADWC, 2009 - 2010, Semester 1 (Part 2)

The first time it rained at Khalifa we had a waterfall in the library (which by the way had NOT been budgeted for, and so was, and is, quite barren). Oh, and one in the foyer too. The third floor and most of the second floor was unusable for weeks – most of the semester in fact. There was no bandwidth to speak of for the technology (get it – HCT!) to be usable. Teachers who really wanted to teach had to develop ‘fallback’ lesson plans if there was any ‘technology’ involved in their lessons. In fact, near the beginning of the banishment, the teachers were told NOT to do too many online lessons as the new ‘management’ considered that teachers “weren’t teaching” if students were instructed to work on and complete online assignments. Actually, the students were lazy and annoyed that teachers who had assigned online worked actually walked around the room redirecting them out of chat rooms and IMs to actually perform the work.

And the clocks didn’t work. One time, just see how out of sync they were, I travelled to the classroom next door and saw a TEN MINUTE discrepancy between my classroom clock and the other. Then, the incompetent wife of another school’s supervisor was put in charge of ‘facilities’. She was so good at her job and so eager to show that she was making headway that the ‘temporary desks’ that had been assigned us to about six weeks into the semester were replaced by - get this - NEW ‘temporary desks’! And how were we informed of this? Of course, by arriving the usual 30 minutes before class began to find that HALF of the teaching staff’s stuff had been unceremoniously dumped on the floor so the NEW ‘temporary desks’ could be assembled. There then ensued another week or so of trying to sort out your stuff from other people’s. Oh, and don’t even ask about the ‘canteen’. It didn’t exist, except for the unsavoury crap that was brought in by lorry. Truly the mark of a 1st Class institution!

Eventually, the despicable CLAW and the joke of a temporary director came out to much fanfare to inform the ‘students’ of the new attendance standards which included them having to sign in by scanning their student cards, thereby giving upper management instant ass-coverage should a student be kicked out for lax attendance. At the end, the joke and the CLAW offered for any students who wanted to talk to them to come up to the table. They were overwhelmed! Students surged up to the table, whilst staff went off to their duties … only the next day to see the Stasi supervisors in the hallways noting down the teachers who were ‘late’ for class, even though some of us had reset our watches to the clocks on the walls of our classrooms to get there by class time. You see, the surge of students had complained en masse that if THEY were to be held accountable, why weren’t the teachers? The idiots! Teachers who arrived ‘late’ because the clock on the wall was off gave the lax students cover in coming in late. Their bitching had bit them in the ass and they were too stupid to realize it!

It was then that the weak excuse/parrot who ‘supervised’ the Higher Diploma called in the team members – disillusioned teaching staff - to individually inform them that he’d been instructed (i.e. programmed) to inform them that they “were not to rest on past laurels”. What a pile of shit! What is a CV if nothing more than ‘past laurels’? It didn’t much matter to him. As an Indian, he was used to following white people’s orders. It meant nothing to him at all.

The big news towards the end of the semester was that the exalted halls of the new campus were to be the venue of the ‘Policy Council’ – or rather, Tubby’s decision-endorsing committee. We were hurriedly moved into our new apparently ‘permanent’ offices to give the illusion of professional infrastructure. Of course, those ‘permanent’ offices were made temporary as staff were told to have everything back into boxes as new offices were going to be developed over the summer break. Oh, yes! Hardly a box was to be seen in the hallways (there was no other place to put our uprooted items for months other than boxes) and the desks were to be ship-shape as we all know that industrious teachers have perfectly-organized desk tops.

Then, finally, the end of semester one crept upon us. What a relief!