Doug Voke has done his time, and now he is calling it a day.

He was, until the end of last term, the headmaster at Selborne Primary, one of the Eastern Cape’s better-known schools. He served 20 years at the helm, with a total of 30 years at Selborne Primary, so a congrats from all of us.

To celebrate his retirement, the Eastern Cape’s Dispatch Live wrote a piece on Doug, titled “Voke brings era to an end“.

Some of his quotes are, um, “interesting”. Turns out he was teary on his final day, stresses to the ‘boys only’ students that being a gentleman is more important than winning, and has a soft spot for “sexy blondes”.

We’ll quote from that Dispatch story below:

Voke jokes about the chances of a woman taking over as principal of the school he attended as a child.

“It could be a woman, but I don’t think our governing body would appoint a woman. There’s no reason it shouldn’t be, but this is a boy’s school and has always had a male headmaster. I don’t think you’d get a Miss Jones scrumming down on the field and singing the war cry on derby day. It would be quite interesting. Of course if she was a sexy blonde it might work.”

Chuckling, he quips that his staff tease him for “always appointing sexy blondes”.

“If you look at the staff photo I suppose it’s true. I always say I appoint pretty girls because they keep the young boys at the school.”

Oh dear. Just checking that Doug knows it’s 2017 up in here?

Don’t worry, the boys don’t know:

Asked of the risk of this sexist ethos filtering through to his impressionable pupils, Voke waves the suggestion off, saying: “The boys don’t know. It’s just me and my staff who joke about it.”

Classic.

You know there’s a link where you can take a look through the staff, right? We’re not shaming anyone who works there or suggesting that they aren’t adequately qualified for the job, but Doug does seem to have quite a few blondes on the books.

Do your own digging HERE and you’ll see what we mean.

Also, for a headmaster who calls the school “fully integrated now”, how about extending that to the staff? Keep scrolling, keep scrolling, keep scrolling – oh, there’s a person of colour.

Selborne is in the Eastern Cape, remember.

I’m sure Dave is a much-loved member of the community, but here’s hoping that whoever takes the reins next doesn’t hire based on hair colour and levels of attractiveness.

[source:dispatch]