BUT keeping keen eye on new term amid school changes

The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) declared Monday it intends to keep watch on school environments as the new term begins on Tuesday.

BUT president Rudy Lovell told Barbados TODAY that union representatives will be making a special visit to problem-plagued schools to ensure that classes resume without any hiccups.

One of the schools that will be visited is Mount Tabor Primary as it will be the first day of school there for students and teachers from St John’s Primary.

Shop stewards from other schools will also be expected to give a report of the day’s proceedings and sound the alarm if any burning issues arise.

“We will be visiting Mount Tabor tomorrow (Tuesday) to get a sense of the comfort level of teachers and students to find out if there is anything that is needed to be done to provide additional comfort,” Lovell said. “At other schools, we will check in with our stewards as it is difficult to get around to all of the schools.

“Once we check in with the stewards and there are any concerns, we will make our way to the schools. But Mount Tabor is one we have to definitely visit because of the peculiarity involved with the school. We want to ensure that the persons moving are comfortable; we have no doubt that they will be comfortable, but we want to give them our support during the transition phase.

He added: “The union would be keeping a close eye on any matter that arises at the schools. We will always monitor occurrences in school and we are also mindful that the ministry is handicapped financially in some regards, but they can still communicate to stakeholders about the concerns we raised regarding our members. Just because there is no money to rectify an issue doesn’t mean that you can’t reach out to the union indicating that you have heard the concerns and state that you don’t have the funds to do X or Y but you are working to acquire the money as opposed to not responding at all.”

The Ministry of Education announced on December 13 that the St John’s Primary School in Glebe Land would close indefinitely and the students and teachers would be moved to Mount Tabor.

The 100-year-old Glebe Land primary school emerged as one of several sick buildings that made headlines last year when teachers and parents protested against environmental issues that were making its occupants ill.

The school was temporarily closed and classes took place at Messiah’s House of Prayer Wesleyan Church for a short while before a decision was made to close the school indefinitely.

In a statement, the Ministry of Education said 89 students will be attending Mount Tabor while 11 were transferred to other schools.

The statement added that a new prefabricated building was constructed to house two classrooms and a school bus will transport students from Coach Hill, Colleton, Gall Hill and environs to Mount Tabor, leaving St John’s Primary at 8:30 a.m. and return to that location in the evening. Orientation took place for the new students on Monday.

Other schools such as Ann Hill, Luther Thorne Primary and St Paul’s Primary were also plagued with environmental issues that led to several disruptions as a result of protesting teachers and parents.

They are all set to resume classes as usual on Tuesday following a series of inspections and rehabilitation work over the Christmas holiday.

Meanwhile, in a press release on Monday, the ministry said that face-to-face classes at the Princess Margaret Secondary School would be delayed by a week and classes would be conducted online.

A check with the BUT revealed that a staircase at the St Philip school required repair. Lovell said he was satisfied the matter was being addressed.

Asked if the union was satisfied with the response of the ministry to environmental issues affecting the schools last year, the BWU head said: “If we were satisfied, there would not be any need for teachers and parents to stand on the outside of the buildings and protest. So we were not satisfied, hence the disruptions.

“We are hopeful that the ministry would have learnt the lessons in terms of addressing and responding to issues promptly, to not only avoid a response from parents but teachers who have fallen ill and were not able to attend work. We are hopeful that in the future, the ministry would respond to environmental issues and other concerns raised by the BUT and that we can sit and thrash out issues in the interest of the teaching and learning process.”

Lovell said a priority on the union’s agenda for this school term will be term’s leave for teachers.

Last term, the BUT reported that several teachers who were eligible were not able to proceed on sabbatical. He said this was a major problem because teachers were experiencing emotional distress and burnout as their workload increased annually.

The matter was also brought up during one of the public consultations on the transformation of the education system by Tony Olson, the founder of the Caribbean Institute for Social and Emotional Learning. He said that based on a survey the institution conducted among Caribbean principals and teachers over the past three years, educators were feeling demotivated, frustrated, burned out and exhausted.

On Monday, Lovell told Barbados TODAY that that term leave was “high on our agenda”.

“Having received a written judgement in court last year, we will be writing shortly to the ministry to ask them to convene a meeting to start the process of addressing the issue as we don’t want this issue to show its head during the education reform process,” the union leader said.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb