The sudden departure last week of disgraced Cranbrook headmaster Nicholas Sampson reminds us yet again that some private schools remain hopelessly adrift from the communities in which they operate. Worse, they are apparently ignorant of the global revolution in institutional openness and transparency. Such schools behave as if the basic rules of good governance and accountability do not apply to them.

Their councils, headmasters and administrators repudiate public and media interest in their affairs, forgetting that malfeasance and “keeping secrets” will ultimately damage their reputations far more than simply being open and accountable – with both positive and negative information. This guiding principle applies in relation to communication with parents, students, teachers, administrative staff and the community.

Transparency revolution Credit: Rhett Wyman

The so-described “transparency revolution” that has swept the world since the internet came into common usage has turned institutions from the church, the monarchy and governments inside out. Big business has spent billions becoming more transparent, open and responsive to shareholders and stakeholders, with further work to be done. Meanwhile, some private schools operate as if it’s the 1960s and some, like Cranbrook, as if it’s the 1930s when institutional transparency was virtually non-existent.

How can it possibly be that some of the best resourced private schools appear impervious to forces influencing almost all institutions across the world – in particular those engaged in the education of young people?

Remember, too, what happened at Cranbrook – involving allegations Sampson knew about claims a serving teacher had sent sexually explicit emails in 2014 to a former female student from another school – comes after the truly shocking revelations of the five-year Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse, in which private schools came in for particular scrutiny. Against such a background, Sampson’s abrogation of his responsibilities as headmaster is all the more reprehensible.

He has spectacularly damaged the reputation of the school he was highly paid to lead and, fairly or unfairly, the reputation of the entire private school sector in the process.

Too many people engaged in private sector education appear unwilling or incapable of speaking the truth or of acknowledging wrongdoing, and doing so in a timely manner. This is not to imply there aren’t serious shortcomings in public sector schools as well – as reported last week in Victoria.

The Cranbrook Council initially defended “their man” but he resigned two days later once the full scope of his inaction and wrongdoing became known. He had kept hidden from school governors information which should have been immediately shared and appropriately acted upon the instant he knew of it.