Minister promises to keep engaging teachers

Outdated protocols governing industrial relations will have no bearing on the way Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw engages with Barbados’ teachers or any other public servants under her remit.

In fact, while pointing out the success of this week’s talks with teachers, Bradshaw has now committed to meet with educators at least once every school term.

Along with the two main teachers’ unions, veteran trade unionist Senator Caswell Franklyn accused Bradshaw of violating established industrial relations practices by meeting directly with teachers. According to Franklyn, only the Chief Education Officer or the Permanent Secretary is at liberty to host such talks.

However, in yet another blistering response, Bradshaw vowed not to be constrained by “outdated” practices that have outlived their usefulness.

“I can’t be a minister trying to shape policy without being able to engage with the people who will help me implement the policy, and therefore the approach taken and the comments made by Senator Franklyn are unfortunate, because I cannot be held to a position that was taken out of custom and practice over 30 of 40 years ago when the demands of our society today require that we consult,” she said on Wednesday.

“It is archaic, and having walked the streets and the length and breadth of this country with the honourable Prime Minister and my colleagues, [the citizens] told us repeatedly that they wanted to be consulted on all kinds of issues.

“My discussions will continue with the teachers. I have made a commitment to them that we will speak at least once a term in this type of forum because this was a very productive forum, which you will hear both unions say that they support,” Bradshaw promised.

While the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) and the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) have expressed little opposition in principle, they said the invitations sent to the teachers for a one-time meeting at the Wildey Gymnasium ran contrary to agreements made with the unions. Amid Coronavirus (COVID-19) fears, the BSTU also called for online meeting facilities, particularly to accommodate teachers identified as high-risk in the current environment.

After rejecting the requests, Bradshaw again declared that the series of meetings that will be completed at the end of this month are not union meetings or negotiations limited to the restart of school. And, amid calls for a boycott of the meetings, approximately 400 public primary school teachers, out of over 1 700, showed up on Wednesday. The day before, 300 out of approximately 1 300 secondary educators showed up for talks on the September 21 reopening of school as well as social issues plaguing students.

“This is the Minister of Education calling for a consultation with the stakeholders who engage with the Ministry, and I really think it is unfair to teachers who feel that the public is sometimes not on their side or the Ministry is sometimes not on their side. I think it is really unfair for them to be treated in this way and to be used in this way as if the Ministry of Education does not want to find accommodation for them,” Bradshaw said.

“I believe that the domain of the Minister must be such that the Minister can invite her staff at any point in time as other ministers have done. I pray and hope that we can get past it because there are a lot of children out there that are depending on us to put aside differences… to get on with the job at hand, and be able to make a difference in the lives of those children. But I will not stop meeting, because I believe in the process of consultation.

“We are having real discussions about issues that the unions would do well to engage us on as well, and I hope that coming out of this we can settle down and get back to dealing with the issues that really are impacting our students and our teachers, and to do so in a meaningful way, to ensure that we don’t always come across as if we are fighting against each other, because I am in no fight with anybody,” the Minister added.
(kareeemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)