BSTU hosting March of Respect at urging of teachers

Responding to a call for action from the membership of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU), union officers have decided to host a March of Respect today, to signal their discontent that numerous troubling issues have not yet been addressed by the Ministry of Education and other agents of the employer.

President of the BSTU, Mary-Ann Redman acknowledged the above, as she gave details about the March of Respect, scheduled to commence at 10 a.m. today from Queen’s Park in the City, then on to the Chief Personnel’s Office (CPO) in Culloden Road, St. Michael and back to the BSTU’s headquarters in Belleville, St. Michael.

“The march has resulted from a direct mandate given to the officers of the Union at our last meeting with our general membership, just under two weeks ago. The membership decided that they were fed up and dissatisfied with the mistreatment generally from the Ministry of Education and other agents of the employer, boards of management and from the CPO’s office and they decided that they wanted as a Union to move beyond what they considered to be talk. They wanted action and they wanted that it be named around the word “respect”, so it has become our “March for Respect” Redman told The Barbados Advocate.

Going into detail about the issues which they will be calling attention to during the March, Redman noted first the disrespect shown to the Union and its members from the Education Ministry, which she alleges has refused to respond to a number of concerns raised by the Union. “There is this whole issue of the Ministry itself not responding in the way that they should to grievance procedures. (For example), we passed a grievance on to them that we couldn’t get it dealt with at the level of the school and it sat there for six weeks, still unaddressed, with no response to us. We had to pass it on to the PS (Permanent Secretary). We started that grievance in December and it still has not been resolved as yet,” she explained.

Redman also pointed to ongoing issues such as a lack of quarterly meetings, issues surrounding school based assessments (SBAs), violence against teachers as well as a number of safety and health matters. The BSTU President also pointed to the environmental troubles at the Combermere School, suggesting that whilst Education Minister Ronald Jones had made mention of the school being sabotaged and the matter has seemingly been trivialised, a stench still continues to plague the school on a daily basis.

Redman noted that the March of Respect will therefore seek to bring greater attention to these issues and send a signal about the discontent and disrespect teachers feel, in not having these ongoing matters properly addressed. (RSM)