Common Entrance not in jeopardy

THE Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) says its members will not be taking any actions that will jeopardise next Tuesday’s Common Entrance Exam.

President of the BUT, Pedro Shepherd, reiterated their position to the media yesterday morning, following a mass meeting of its membership at the Union’s headquarters. His comments came against the backdrop of concerns raised by various commentators, and the steps taken by the Ministry of Education to put a contingency plan in place for that examination, should teachers be unavailable.

“The Barbados Union of Teachers will do nothing to disrupt the smooth running of the Common Entrance. All of our teachers are going to be in place on Tuesday to administer the Common Entrance, and to correct all the scripts that are corrected on the day of Common Entrance. So I just want to reassure the public, parents and teacher; teachers are parents too. There are teachers here who have children taking the exam, so we’re not going to do anything to jeopardise the examination,” he maintained.

The union boss said any action to be taken by the BUT will come after the Common Entrance examination on Tuesday. Meanwhile, he also defended the BUT’s decision to have a mass meeting yesterday, the last day of school before Tuesday’s exam, given that Monday is a public holiday to commemorate May Day.

“If you go to any primary school now, you are going to see the children having their parties, playing football, playing cricket and in relaxed mode. Teachers hardly do anything with children on the day before Common Entrance.

“It is unfortunate, though, that it comes the day after the bank holiday, where children are going to have three, four days frolicking, and may not remember certain things. But little teaching, if any, is going to take place today [Friday],” the veteran teacher said.

In spite of that fact, he revealed that most of the class four teachers remained at their respective schools yesterday, and opted not to attend the BUT’s meeting.

“That is how BUT teachers or teachers generally feel about children. Teachers don’t do anything to jeopardise children’s performance,” he stated. (JRT)