Public school principals will likely be requesting more funds than usual from the Ministry of Education as they embark upon the rollout of a new academic year with new requirements and unprecedented health and safety protocols.
And, plagued with incomplete staffing lists and the absence of a template to guide implementation of the new protocols particularly at primary schools, there are still concerns about the feasibility of a September 14 start date for teachers’ planning week.
President of the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools Juanita Wade and her counterpart in the Association of Public Primary School Principals (APPSP) Hyacinth Harris have both indicated that in addition to increased sanitation and cleanliness on the compound, secondary schools principals will be seeking major upgrades to the telecommunications infrastructure when the annual estimates are submitted.
“We submit estimates and we have had discussions on the estimates as individual schools and then we discover what has been allocated based on what we have asked. But yes, everybody will want to have more money, for example, to upgrade internet facilities at the school,” Wade said of secondary school principals.
“That is one big area for sure. Sanitizing stations and those kinds of things will be needed, and therefore I expect that in addition to what is usually asked for, I expect them to account for that,” she added.
Wade, the principal at Harrison College, however, expressed confidence that this increase would be counted among the “needs” of principals to which the ministry has promised to respond.
The annual budgetary proposals for secondary schools cover the salaries of staff and board members, maintenance, equipment, furniture and utilities, among other things.
Although the Ministry of Education covers most of the annual expenses for primary schools, grants of approximately $9,600 to 15,000 are allocated to assist with day-to-day operations.
Harris told Barbados TODAY that while the amounts provided are “never enough”, most primary schools, for a short time, will be able to continue using the sanitization products put in place when schools opened to accommodate class four students earlier this year.
“I believe many of them will still have some of the supplies but obviously as the year progresses, these supplies would have to increase. The grants that they give to the primary schools are never enough and that is why principals have to do lots of intensive fundraising work every year. Then in recent years, we have been receiving the grants as late as November along with some of the necessary supplies,” she further complained.
In just over two weeks, members from the two organisations will be leading off the physical re-opening of school possibly with a shift system along with a blended approach that combines online and face-to-face learning.
When asked if secondary schools would be ready for the proposed start date, Wade said she could not speak with certainty as different institutions were at different stages.
The APPSP president meanwhile is hoping that primary school principals will be given the opportunity to meet with and discuss a range of issues with education officials. She explained that a template for the re-opening was yet to be given to explain how schools should be organized for next month’s start to the new school year.
“When they can tell the principals how many teachers they will get for the upcoming term, then we can move forward because you could appreciate the need to meet with management teams and staff and organize how the school will look for the upcoming term, but we have to receive the staff lists first,” Harris explained.
“These are all matters that need to be sorted out right now before we decide whether the 14th is ideal. A lot of things have been going around in the public domain, and I did not say anything before, because people don’t really understand what is happening in primary schools. I am not sure that they understand how primary schools function,” she added.
While both APPSP and BAPPS had differing positions on last week’s controversial meetings between the Ministry of Education and the teachers’ unions, their leaders both agree that further discussions among stakeholders are needed to the interest of the country’s students.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)
