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.
V.
32.
Students Sit-in, 9th and 10th June 1977
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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