Statement: “The headmistress called for a meeting of all staff members to discuss discipline issues.” Consider this statement and decide which of the following assumptions is or are implicit.

Introduction / Context:
This reasoning question deals with assumptions behind an administrative action. The headmistress has called a meeting of all staff members to discuss discipline issues. You must decide whether it is assumed that discipline issues existed earlier and whether the headmistress wants to address all of them together. Understanding such assumptions is important for interpreting organisational decisions.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Statement: The headmistress called for a meeting of all staff members to discuss discipline issues.
• Assumption I: There were some discipline issues that were raised earlier.
• Assumption II: The headmistress wants to address all of the discipline issues together.
• Task: Decide which assumptions are implicit in the statement.

Concept / Approach:
A meeting to discuss discipline issues makes sense only if such issues exist or have been observed. That naturally supports Assumption I. However, the statement does not say that every single issue will be addressed or that they all must be taken up together; it simply says that the topic of the meeting is discipline issues. It is possible to discuss only the most urgent or important ones. Assumptions must be necessary, not merely possible elaborations.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: The headmistress calls a meeting with all staff members and the agenda is discipline issues.Step 2: For this to be meaningful, there must be at least some discipline problems in the school that need attention. This is exactly what Assumption I states.Step 3: Without any discipline issues, there would be no reason to call such a meeting, so Assumption I is implicit.Step 4: Now examine Assumption II: the headmistress wants to address all of them together.Step 5: The statement does not mention the word all or suggest that every single issue will be covered in one meeting.Step 6: It is possible that the headmistress intends to address only a subset of the most pressing discipline issues or to start a series of discussions.Step 7: Thus, the idea of addressing all of them together is not necessary for the statement and is therefore not implicit.Step 8: Hence, only Assumption I is implicit.

Verification / Alternative check:
Imagine the headmistress has received several complaints about student behaviour. She decides to call a meeting to discuss discipline issues. Clearly, there are issues to discuss; this supports Assumption I. She may choose to focus only on punctuality and classroom behaviour in the first meeting and leave issues like uniform or homework for later sessions. The statement about calling a meeting would still be true, even though not all issues are covered together. Thus the statement does not require Assumption II.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Option b is wrong because Assumption II is not necessary for the meeting to be called.
• Option c is wrong because it incorrectly includes Assumption II as implicit.
• Option d is wrong because clearly at least one assumption (that discipline issues exist) must hold.
• Option e shifts focus to truth values instead of logical necessity and still misidentifies which assumption is needed.

Common Pitfalls:

• Over reading the phrase discuss discipline issues to mean discuss each and every existing issue.
• Ignoring the minimal requirement that there must be some genuine issues to justify a full staff meeting.
• Confusing what might be ideal (addressing everything at once) with what is logically assumed by the basic statement.

Final Answer:
Only assumption I is implicit: there were some discipline issues that had arisen earlier and needed discussion.