16
Management must adhere. We also gained the impression that
the degree of insistence by the Education Department on compliance with the Code appears to vary from section to section, giving rise to possible misunderstanding and even confusion. Having examined a range of comparable contracts, we were able to ascertain that reference to the Code of Aid with regard to termination is not a standard feature.
31.
Our understanding is that the terms of the new contract were prepared with the advice and concurrence of the Education Department. Without a thorough appreciation of the situation, even after the appointment of one of its officers to sit on the School's Management Committee, it was not surprising that the Education Department took the view that the contract for the teachers had to be revised in order to prevent future agitation. It must be pointed out that the old contract, by itself, does appear to be simplistic and some kind of revision might have been called for, but introducing it at this point in time, when the teachers felt that their job security was being threatened, laid a solid foundation for the mutual suspicion and distrust that were to characterise all subsequent developments.
Students Sit-in, 9th and 10th June 1977
V.
32.
As pointed out in the previous Section, altera- tion of the contract terms was apparently motivated by the notion that some of the teachers were intent on creating trouble. Such an action, in retrospect, had the effect of a self-fulfilling prophecy in that the new contract led directly to the sit-in, thus confirming the view of the School Management and the Education Department that the decision. to revise the employment conditions of the teachers was justified. On the other hand, most of the teachers did behave in such a way during the 9th and 10th June 1977 as
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