A change at the top in education may be just the lesson that needed to be learned for an apparent outbreak of peace between the main teachers’ union and the ministry, as the union is reporting that two years of contentious issues are on the verge of being resolved after just six hours of talks today with new Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw.
When Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) president Mary Redman emerged from the meeting, several issues of dismissals, appointments and hiring practices, were well on their way to being finally resolved in the coming weeks, she told Barbados TODAY.
“The Minister set a tone that we are all hoping that will continue in terms of the relationship between the BSTU and officials from the Ministry of Education. It was really very encouraging because there are some long-outstanding issues that we were able to finally ventilate and we can see that there is some movement towards having them resolved in the very near future and we are very happy about this,” said Redman, flanked by members of her executive.
The BSTU president did not venture into details about the individual matters discussed. In the days before the May general election the BSTU reported they were making no headway with the ministry, then under Ronald Jones, over the controversial dismissal of three union members.
The first incident involved a principal at The Learning Centre who was dismissed in December 2016 without being given a reason for her termination, Redman had said. The union contended that the principal was not in breach of contract. The union also alleged that a lab assistant from the Combermere School was terminated in February 2017 based on a report that she never got to see.
The BSTU was also aggrieved over the dismissal of St Michael School teacher who was initially employed part time but was not rehired after “three years of providing excellent teaching service”.
In each case, the union claimed that they were being given the runaround, with last minute cancellations of talks or sometimes flat-out refusals to negotiate from school boards, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Civil Service.
But today was a different story, with the minister indicating that these issues were not expected to linger well into the new school year, Redman said.
“The Minister seems to be very action-oriented and once that sort of atmosphere is created and the tone is set then we all know that it trickles down and shows others beneath the status of minister to treat to the issues of the union,” she said.
Violence in schools, a major challenge in the last academic year, is also expected to be dealt with in a meeting with the minister the week before students and teachers head back to the classroom next month .
“We are going to deal with the issue of school violence on the 5th of September because we had 23 items on the agenda given the fact that we have not had a meeting with the Ministry in over a year. The issues were many and they were mainly members’ issues. We want to deal with these issues today because they had implications for the start of the school term,” the union boss said.
Great.
Will Redman actually teach now?
I mean like go to classes and stuff, just asking
“God Bless Smokey Burke in his recovery from illness.
But he gave us a fitting song for this occasion “My party in power now”.
This cantankerous red woman is now happy in the red sea, hoping one day to find favour with the captain of the ship.
All these local trade union leaders seem to be fishing for a pic.
Cobweb will now tie her tongue for at least five years.
…and what did that JOHNNY crowing as usual every morning expect now that JONES and wuk is no longer there to SHOUT THROUGH THE MIC and insult the Union Leaders, Teachers and the children ? after all his DAMN LYING CUSS BIRD PARTY was in POWER.
That leading REMNANT is NO MORE..thank you Barbadians and Commonwealth citizens for ridding that TERMITE from the Education system once and for all.
From 23 percent to 5 percent wage increase.not even a little child would have done that.good thing the unions ain’t lawyers all them clients would get jailed for poor representation.these are interesting times.but like the saying goes time will tell.who get the other 18 percent that the unions was so adamant for and Wasn’t bulging.Thats the million dollar question???
No Tennyson drakes it is a matter of respect all around.Previosly we had Mr Jones,going into schools telling Headmasters and others that the schools ain,t belong to them ,belittling the teachers in front of studentsmaking the students feel they can do as they like.In addition,not agreeing to meet with the teachers to hear of they concerns was unacceptable for a former teachsr himself,hence his attitude was all wrong.Ms Bradshaw seems to want to meet the Unions halfway which is good for all concerned,instead of that,bombastic type behavior exhibited by Mr Jones,in my opinion.
So the Government has made it crystal clear that a number of public servants will no longer have jobs as a result of the proposed restructuring. Why should those three cases cited be given any preference and is the Minister giving assurances that those three individuals will be re-employed notwithstanding the current economic condition? And what happens when those individuals are not re-hired? Are we going going to see more BSTU directed walkouts and aickouta at the s hooks across the island?
…walkouts and sickouts…
The honeymoon will soon be over.
The party hacks will not know how to feel.