By Emmanuel Joseph
The Ministry of Education is considering calling teachers back to work a week earlier than scheduled to undertake sensitisation and professional development training in relation to pending educational reform.
However, the island’s two teachers’ unions are not in favour of the timing of the proposal which is yet to be made official by the ministry leading up to the resumption of the new school term on September 18.
While Chief Education Officer Ramona Archer-Bradshaw could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, presidents of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Rudy Lovell, Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) Mary Redman, and Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools (BAPPSS) Stephen Jackman said they were aware of the proposal.
The union leaders admitted that they had not received any correspondence from the ministry to date, but have been made aware of a proposal to have teachers start their planning week on September 4 instead of September 11.
But the BUT president is pushing back hard against the proposal.
“I advise my teachers to continue on their vacation until we advise them otherwise. The ministry would have indicated today to teachers, via principals, that they are planning to bring up the start day of school by adjusting the vacation period to bring the planning week up to September 4. We know that many teachers would have made alternative plans outside of what the ministry is planning, and to ask a teacher to drop what they are doing just to facilitate the change to the school term is a bit much at this point in time,” Lovell told Barbados TODAY.
He said if the Ministry were to ask him for a response to its plan, it would be a “no”.
“I had a conversation with the chief education officer this morning who has indicated that the ministry is seeking to have training for teachers. The ministry has already taken away term leave from teachers and they are seeking now to take away vacation period. So the executive of the BUT would be meeting this evening and we would respond in kind. I can’t tell you what the outcome would be because after the executive meets, we will have to meet with the membership to determine whether or not the membership is in agreement with what the ministry is proposing,” the union leader asserted.
“I can tell you that I am not in favour of it. I think teachers are burned out, they had a very long school year, and many of them would need the additional one week to plan to get themselves in order, do their shopping, and facilitate other activities that they had planned. Let’s wait and see what the membership says and we would have to abide by what the membership says.”
Lovell said he would want to meet with the general body as soon as possible after the executive meeting.
Although Redman also does not support the “late notice”, she said it would be irresponsible of her to advise BSTU members not to adhere to a request from their employer to turn up for duty.
“Technically, the school year starts on September 1 as the Education Act states. The problem is that, of course, if this is supposed to be the final arrangement, then it is coming very late…. The notification is very late…and, of course, it is going to have a disturbing effect on any plans that teachers might have made for their non-teaching time up to September 11,” she said in an interview with Barbados TODAY.
Asked if her union would support the proposed adjustment to the planning week, Redman replied: “The fact is, we can’t not support it because, technically, when teachers are on holiday, they are on call. That is why I said non-teaching time…. We are still on call…. and once it does not impact our 38 weeks of teaching time – because the Education Act states clearly that the school year consists of 38 weeks of teaching time – . . . the Ministry has the wherewithal to call us out to training during our non-teaching time, which was what was indicated to me was going to happen.
“My problem is the late notice and the plans that teachers would have made for their non-teaching time, separate and apart from the fact that, technically, the school year starts on September 1, and we are supposed to be ready for the start of the school by September 1.”
The BSTU president recommended that if teachers are called out early, that only two days – September 7 and 8 – be used instead of the entire week.
In the meantime, she said she is awaiting confirmation from the ministry on the proposed early start.
“I spoke to the chief education officer this afternoon, and she said no correspondence has been sent out…that no firm decision has been taken…. She is yet to meet with her people and then with the teachers’ unions,” Redman said.
The head of the BAPPSS, meanwhile, would only say he was aware the adjustment to the week was coming but he had not received any correspondence up to this stage.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
