Primary school principals secure agreement with govt

Public primary school principals have reached a long-awaited settlement with the government over persistent workplace grievances, Barbados TODAY can reveal.

The breakthrough came late Friday after months of unrest and is being touted as a major step towards restoring confidence among senior educators.

The heads, represented by the Association of Public Primary School Principals (APPSP), had complained of “being inundated with many physically and mentally distressing incidents across the education system without redress”.

The APPSP also expressed dissatisfaction with what they described as treatment “not in keeping with good employer-employee relations”, citing a decline in such relations.

But after marathon discussions with the Ministry of Educational Transformation, primary school principals are now singing the praises of the government for resolving their grievances.

“As an association, we have deeply appreciated the opportunity to meet with the minister and his senior team today, and we are pleased with the outcome,” an upbeat APPSP president, Olwin Walker, told Barbados TODAY.

“We have reached several agreements on the way forward for handling various matters concerning principals’ concerns and we look forward to what we have agreed on coming to fruition.”

Nonetheless, the administrators expressed strong dissatisfaction at how a series of outstanding grievances and concerns had previously been handled by the Ministry of Educational Transformation.

The principals referred to attending a course entitled “Exploring Leadership: Paradigms, Principles and Practices”, where participants were asked to critically examine injustices and elements of inequity within the system.

They recalled being encouraged to speak openly about norms and practices within the system, which “over the years, we have accepted and by virtue of that acceptance, have come to perpetuate ourselves”.

The APPSP also reported that constant demands to meet “unrealistic” deadlines, a lack of recognition for the diligent work required to maintain a quality education system, subtle threats, insensitive transfers, and micromanagement had all become intolerable.

The rights to annual leave, respect for the office of principal, and the “indiscriminate” transfer of principals were among the concerns raised.

Other issues facing acting principals included working for three to four months without payment of their correct salary, working without contracts in contravention of the Employees’ Rights Act, and failing to receive responses to queries for several months.

The school year 2024–25 was also highlighted as a concern, given frequent school disruptions, environmental challenges and outbreaks of contagious diseases.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb