Part 2 - School culture is not written in mission statements.

This series begins where a recent LinkedIn reflection left off — on the quiet ways culture is learned, reinforced, and revealed in schools. Leadership protection, daily behaviour, and fairness under pressure matter far more than polished words on paper.

 

How the story unfolds

 

Parimala is my sister‑in‑law. Her brother Bala married Veni, a school teacher. Around 1999, Bala and Veni purchased a house. In 2003, they sought help to renovate it and turned to Parimala’s parents. At that time, Parimala and her mother Pachy already owned a fully paid house. To assist, Parimala’s parents transferred their house to Veni so she could obtain a government loan — with the clear understanding that once the loan was repaid, the property would be returned to Parimala and her mother.

 

It is important to note that Parimala and her mother received no consideration for this transfer. The government loan was used entirely by Veni and Bala to renovate their own home and settle personal debts.

 

When the loan was finally repaid, Veni claimed ownership of the house and even attempted to sell it. To protect their rights, Parimala and her mother lodged a caveat. Although Veni managed to remove the first caveat, a second was filed and remains valid until 2028.

 

Litigation followed. Veni contested the caveat, but after multiple affidavits and case managements, the High Court of Shah Alam upheld the plaintiffs’ position. In 2023, the Court ordered Veni to pay RM3,000 to Parimala and her mother. To this day, she has not complied.

 

Such conduct is unbecoming of a teacher and sets a poor example for her students. I reported the matter to her headmistress. While we had several telephone conversations, none of my emails received a formal reply, nor was any written explanation provided about what transpired between the headmistress and Veni.

 

Culture written in silence

 

What makes this case more troubling is not only Veni’s refusal to honour a High Court order, but the silence of her institution. When a headmistress avoids written accountability and shields a teacher from consequence, it signals what behaviour leadership is willing to protect. Culture in schools is not written in mission statements; it is written in these silences, in the protection of misconduct, and in the absence of fairness. The gap between public declarations of values and the private reinforcement of impunity is precisely how institutional decline begins.

 

Institutional decline begins quietly

 

The refusal to comply with a High Court order is not just about one teacher’s conduct. It becomes a mirror of the system when leadership chooses silence. A headmistress who avoids written accountability, who shields misconduct rather than confronts it, teaches her staff and students a lesson far louder than any mission statement.

 

This is how culture is formed: not in the polished words of vision documents, but in the daily choices of what is ignored, what is protected, and what is excused. When fairness is absent and accountability is deferred, decline sets in. It does not announce itself with poor strategy or failed policies; it creeps in through silence, protection, and the widening gap between public values and private behaviour.

 

The Veni case is not an isolated dispute over property. It is a case study in how schools — through leadership behaviour — signal what kind of culture they are willing to tolerate. And when misconduct is tolerated, it becomes normalized.