Parents to discuss taking Gov’t to court over survey

The controversial “testing” of a group of first form students may be headed to court after all.

Social activist Winston Clarke is spearheading a fight against Government over its involvement in the administration of a survey given to 733 first form students without the consent of their parents.

With the support of several attorneys-at-law, Clarke will tomorrow facilitate a conference where interested parents of the affected students can join those taking legal action.

Clarke told Barbados TODAY he decided to convene the event on Saturday after being inundated with phone calls from parents interested in seeking legal redress.

Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training Kay McConney, Chief Educational Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have all come under heavy criticism since the news broke last Tuesday that 11-year-old first form students at five secondary schools were given the test unsanctioned by their parents.

 Clarke said parents were exploring the possibility of taking the matter before the law courts.

He disclosed that Michael Lashley, King’s Counsel along with Corey Beckles and Adrian Hinds were among a group of attorneys who could be taking up the fight on behalf of the affected students.

“It’s more of a press conference and consultation. It’s a gathering of the parents who have been affected, the parents whose children have been affected, the people in the public who have children who would like to voice their opinions….

“A lot of people are desirous of having a class action suit against the Ministry of Education, against the IDB, against whatever agency they deem to be responsible for what transpired,” Clarke told Barbados TODAY in a telephone interview.

“What’s happened is that a lot of people do not realise that when you place your child in a school between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. the principal and the teachers take on the responsibility as a ward or parent. It’s a contract where they teach academics and instill ethics, values, morals within that time frame. It’s not supposed to be anything that is counter-indicative to what the parents’ desire and if you are going into personal matters you have to seek the parents’ permission. It is the law.

“And then when you do something like you advertise a Computer Science test and then you inveigle a survey into it, it is deception and a lot of parents are upset even though their children might not be fully psychologically affected, they themselves feel distrust and they would like to voice that,” he explained.

Clarke said interested persons would not have to pay as “a faction” of people would be paying the legal fees.(RB)