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Education & Subjugation: The Hidden Curriculum of the Workplace

“Don’t start a sentence with And.”

“Sit up straight.”

“Stand when a teacher enters.”

“Single file.”

“Keep left in the corridors.”

These are some of the words that echo in the background of my memory when I recall my high school days. Today, I often find myself regurgitating those same words at my students.

As teachers, we frequently tell students what to do, when to do it, how to write, and how to behave properly. We call this classroom management. Educational institutions replicate similar (sometimes more intense) levels of control onto the professional lives of teachers. This is called micromanagement.

This paradox is particularly evident where there are multiple layers of management. A teacher’s work is tracked relentlessly through task-completion logs, file audits, and formal unannounced observations. Like a spectre, academic heads, and upper management hover in the background, their constant monitoring creating the sense that someone is always watching.

This pervasiveness has become almost Orwellian, where classrooms and even staffrooms are fitted with cameras. Staffrooms, traditionally considered private spaces where teachers decompress and speak candidly, no longer offer that same sense of respite.

Management often justifies this policy as a measure to protect teachers from potential allegations by students or parents. Yet the positioning of these cameras tells a different story. Placed at the back of the classroom and directed toward the teacher, they reinforce the all-too-familiar power dynamic. That is, the teacher remains the focal point — the one under constant scrutiny.

The managerial apparatus in these companies are often marked with academic titles and honorifics, but in reality they function as nothing more than enforcers of procedure — cogs in a money-making machine. These machines are businesses that refer to themselves as educational “companies,” overseeing multiple school branches that could more accurately be called “franchises.” The student becomes the “customer,” and the school bends accordingly. Student misbehaviour is often met with a lack of firm accountability, resulting in missed opportunities to teach valuable life lessons. Instead, teachers are told to adhere to protocols that appear designed more at bogging them down in a labyrinth of incident reports, behaviour logs, and endless follow-ups. Other times, fault is simply attributed to the teacher’s classroom management. Meanwhile, any procedural breach by a teacher is documented and placed on file.

More recently, a new phenomenon has emerged: enforced alignment. Teachers are expected to deliver the same content, at the same pace, in the same way. Lesson plans must be submitted without delay and followed rigidly. Objectives must remain visible at all times. Deviating from the prescribed plan is often discouraged or questioned. This is a deep contradiction. Teachers are expected to differentiate for diverse academic levels, learning needs, and personalities, yet are simultaneously denied professional autonomy.

Administrative demands further compound the issue. Layers of planning, files, and tracking sheets — many of which are redundant and of limited pedagogical value. Its only value appear to lie in the fact that it can be scrutinised by heads of department, managers, or ministry officials. Compliance becomes the priority; learning becomes secondary.

As a result, the teacher’s role is increasingly reduced to crowd control and administrative busywork that add little educational value. These demands do not enrich a child’s mind, they function primarily as mechanisms of accountability and surveillance.

In the end, teachers experience micromanagement so pervasively because the education system itself is built on structures of control and capitalism. Those in the upper echelons of leadership are far removed from the realities of the classroom. In many private institutions, financial imperatives compete with — and sometimes overshadow — the genuine goal of nurturing young minds.

Thank you for reading!

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