‘Too docile’

Head of principals’ body says members not agitating enough for issues to be resolved 

By Sheria Brathwaite

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has been urged to step in and “make right” the Ministry of Education’s failure to appoint acting principals or pay them the salary equivalent to their post.

Several acting principals expressed frustration about not being paid to scale, as the Association of Public Primary School Principals’ (APPSP) second biennial conference got off to a heated start at the Barbados Beach Club, Maxwell Coast Road, Christ Church on Thursday morning.

There are about 40 acting primary school principals and none of them has been paid to scale since the school year began last month, Barbados TODAY has learned.

The association also want other issues addressed, such as primary school principals not being appointed and not receiving the same benefits as their secondary school counterparts, and deplorable conditions in some schools.

“The head of the civil service needs to make it right; the head of the civil service knows who she is, so Madam Prime Minister, we are calling and we ask you to make it right,” said APPSP president, Ivan Clarke.

Expressing disappointment with the Ministry of Education, he said he had “discussed the matter at length” with the Chief Education Officer earlier this month and thought the issue had been rectified.

He told Barbados TODAY that the ministry had informed him that the teachers were not being paid to scale because they had not been evaluated, which he stressed was an unnecessary procedure.

“The reasons given by officers from the Ministry of Education is that they were not evaluated so hence they can’t be paid in that salary scale, but the acting principals are very upset,” he said. “I think part of the reason is that the ministry is looking to have interviews with the acting principals in January. So they were waiting until January for those interviews to figure out who should or shouldn’t have those positions.

“But the point is that persons have commitments and they’re falling behind because some of these persons have been working for four/five/six years, a long time, and have not been given that salary. Some of them have gone back to their substantive posts [in terms of payment] – that is, teacher in some instances and graduate teacher – which is below the salary scale.”

Clarke said the headteachers, based on the intensity of the debate, wanted to take action but it was something the association at large had to discuss.

Multiple efforts by Barbados TODAY to reach a representative from the Ministry of Education to respond to the payment issue were futile.

Clarke said the association was also concerned that acting principals were not being appointed. Explaining the process, he said that each year, acting principals were evaluated and the ministry had to determine if their performance was satisfactory for them to continue in the post.

Many acting principals had outstanding track records, said the former Hilda Skeene Primary School principal, and the association just could not understand why there was a need for the educators to be interviewed to determine whether they would be appointed.

Speaking to the teachers during the conference, Clarke said: “You have an evaluation process and that evaluation report should stand. The fact that you’ve been working six years, five years in some cases, or four years and you, year after year, have been evaluated and you found favour . . . then you should be appointed, you should be appointed. Why then are they allowing you to continue? Why are you allowed to continue destroying the schools if that is what you are doing? If you’re suitable, you’re suitable and the evaluation alone says that.”

He also told the principals that they were “too docile”, especially when their rights were being infringed. Clarke urged them to speak up for themselves as that was the only way they would earn respect.

He said: “How can you inculcate anything into our children if you are allowing your rights to be eroded? What you allow will continue. Nobody’s asking you to stand up with a placard and say this or say that . . . but you can’t be a leader of a school and be docile . . . . You need to know your rights and make people respect those rights. Once you operate within the law . . . nobody’s going to do you anything and nobody can do you anything. Too many of you are too docile.”.

The conference’s featured speaker, historian Professor Pedro Welch weighed in on the issue, telling the educators that for the principals’ association to succeed in agitating for better working conditions for teachers, each principal had to speak up individually and collectively to make a stand for what was right.

Acknowledging that it was not his place to tell the educators what to do as a union, Welch said: “I am saying if you are still having these problems in 2023, it’s a reflection on your collective voice and will. I’m saying if that is still the situation, then there has been a massive failure of you as principals and deputy principals. You have allowed a process to fester.

“Do not let the situation fester. Those who see you in that position of suffering servant will let you suffer forever . . . . You are not important because you have not established your importance. I’m telling you right now that the large majority of persons in the public have absolutely no idea of the difficulty that you’re facing because you are suffering in silence.”

Clarke later highlighted other areas that need urgent attention, describing deplorable conditions in many primary schools badly in need of repair. He called for the government’s budget to be increased to deal with the infrastructural issues.

He also said teachers were in dire need of sabbaticals as many of them were feeling burnt out and run down.

Primary school principals were not receiving the same benefits as secondary school principals and those discrepancies needed to come to an end, he added.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb