05/05/2025
SCHOOL OWNERS ARE HUMAN BEINGS
We often see proprietors as moneybags, as people who sit in offices and count fees. But very few pause to remember that behind that office door is a human being fighting daily battles we may never understand.
The proprietor you grumble about when salaries delay is probably negotiating a loan to pay those same salaries. The one you call w!cked for denying your request for extra days off might have just received a call that their mother is ill in the village, yet chooses to remain at work to steady the school’s affairs.
“Before you judge someone, walk a mile in their shoes. In their journey, you might find wounds you never imagined.”
It’s easy to complain about management. It’s easy to forget the sacrifices made when you’re not the one awake at 2 a.m. wondering how to pay electricity bills, service school buses, renew licenses, fix broken chairs, and still meet payroll — all in a country where policies change overnight and inflation grows like wildfire.
I know of a school owner who sold her land to settle staff salaries during the COVID-19 lockdown when parents weren’t paying fees. Nobody talks about that. Nobody remembers her tears when employees, whom she fed and clothed during better times, turned against her in staff meetings.
We forget that proprietors too are parents, spouses, and siblings. They have homes where NEPA takes light, fuel queues delay them, and landlords knock at their doors too. Some leave their sick children at home to ensure the school runs well for other people’s children.
Dear teacher, cleaner, driver, admin officer, before you attack your proprietor — before you gather in corners to gossip, before you accuse them of insensitivity, remember they’re human first.
