Even for the merest routine matter, principals and teachers have to visit the Department times out of number. The clerical staff treat principals and teachers with disdain. Here the dictatorship of the subject clerk is the order of the day as the staff officers more often than not are entirely dependent on the clerk, being clueless where administrative details are concerned. Even registered letters are 'not received'. Letters handed over are strangely 'not in file'.
Papers being lost and 'misplaced' is the norm.
Even after retirement the harassment does not cease. There is an incredible lack of supervision and the clerks take their own sweet time as they well know that nobody checks their work and nobody except the poor teacher involved is concerned. Repeating ad nauseam that teachers are paid a good salary, so let them get on with the job, displays an abysmal lack of understanding of even the basic tenets of employee and human relations. I had to visit the Greenpath Office and Zonal Office of the Education Department at Slave Island on several occasions some months back. I do not know at what time these offices are supposed to start work but even long after at 9.00 a.m.