Before we start speculating why more than a dozen students were poisoned at a local private school, we should try searching for the person who is actually responsible for the mishap.
We should look for the government administrator who approved private school investors renting unsuitable buildings and recruiting teachers not based on their ability to teach but on their readiness to accept low salaries so the investors could make a profit.
The capital required for a private school is less than half of what it costs to start a kabsa restaurant. Owners of private schools are cartels — not only do they own schools, they also own the decision makers who approved them, as they feed them properly.
I am sure most school principals have huge files of letters that they have sent to the Ministry of Education about the condition of their school buildings. I am sure that they complained until finally, in frustration, they gave up.
A few years ago, I offered my house for rent to a government department that made a very good offer. I was happy and ready to seal the deal until I received a phone call from an unknown person who offered to close the deal if I accepted half the payment that I had earlier agreed upon. Being a man of principle, I rejected the offer and refused to be part of that game.
Last year, 30 other residents of the neighborhood and I gathered to protest renting of a building as a school. The school principal refused to accept the building, saying he was not ready to take the responsibility.
We called the Civil Defense, the municipality and other engineers and they all agreed that it would be a disaster to rent that building as a school. One month later, the building was opened as a school.
Thank God, we still have the freedom to register our children in the schools of our choice.
I urge every official with a conscience to fight this corruption. I call for every region to establish its own committee to investigate buildings rented as schools.
I call for the establishment of a committee to monitor the activities of the committee investigating the schools and another committee to monitor the two committees just mentioned.