AGM LICK HUNG Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru –Guru

 Parent Teacher Association      7 March 2015 2.30pm

This is part 2 of our AGM series – Election of office bearers

Our last article provided some brief information on accounts.

This article will discuss the election process. We will start with a brief FAQ

1.      Who may attend –All current parents (mum and dad)  or legal guardians and teachers . Current parents are those parents with children attending the school during the year of election .

The AJK (committee) can also invite special guests such as observers from the Ministry of Education or members from the Board of Governors 

2.      What posts will be contested – 15 members comprising of YDP (Chairman) TYDP (deputy chairman), Treasurer, Secretary plus 11 ordinary AJK members will be elected.

      By convention of LH, 8 members are from parents and 7 members are reserved for teachers. The 8 members from parents are elected by all members whereas the 7 teachers representatives are elected/nominated by the school administrators. Separately there will be an election for 2 Auditors   . Dissolution of AJK- The AJK for the preceding period will be dissolved and a Chairman for the election process will be elected from one of the members.

By convention, the Chairman will not contest for any post but is entitled to vote .

4.      Who is eligible to stand for election –Any member is entitled to stand for  election  for any post as long the candidate has a nominator and seconder during the election .

5.      Election process –If there is more than one candidate for the post, the contest will be done by ballot and the winner will be determined by a simple majority.

                        A VERY SHORT HISTORY OF PIBG ELECTION IN LH

Lick Hung is a large school with enrolment peaking at around 3500 students in 2007/08/09. Current enrolment is around 2500 students with total parents of around 4000. The teaching staff is around 100 plus strong. Turnout from parents for past  AGMs had been generally low at  less than  3% and in many  years there were fewer parents than teachers .

Due to the composition of the members attending (parents voluntary, teachers compulsory ), it would be nearly impossible for anyone to be elected unless the candidates had strong support from teachers . For parents to have an impact in the selection of office bearers, a turnout of at least 300 is needed to neutralize the teachers’ vote bank. Based on previous voting trends , teachers would be influenced /directed to vote for a list of preferred candidates while those independent parent candidates  will have to convince the parents  to vote for them on election day .

AGM is the only event where parents have the right to attend so it is somewhat disappointing that we do not see greater participation from parents. Lack of interest / low participation is a common problem for most voluntary associations / organizations. Apart from the inability to commit, the most common reason for non- participation is the feeling of inability to make any input or change to that organization. 

For those who are very new to LH, 2013 was a watershed year where independent parent candidates were voted in for the first time by a majority of parents who were not satisfied with several school policies including the implementation of compulsory tuition for year 1 and 2. In 2014, a majority of parents voted for the YDP and one of the independent candidates but the remaining 6 positions were won by those who were on the school preferred list after several parents left following the voting of YDP.

While no one can compel anyone to attend, we can only urge you to take an interest  in your children’s welfare by  attending the 2015 AGM in order  find out what has been going on since the last AGM and hope you will let the incoming committee know what you want  for the next 12 months. The most basic responsibility of a member in a democratic organization is to exercise the RIGHT TO VOTE in order to protect the FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION  and the RIGHT OF PARTICIPATION  .

Next Episode- Matters Arising or Usul Usul

27 February 2015