Shocking!

Shocked and mystified.

 

That’s how Education Minister Ronald Jones and Parliamentary Secretary Senator Harry Husbands described the escalation of the action taken by the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) over the past few days.

 

They were speaking to the media during a press conference held just around 3 pm yesterday at that Ministry’s headquarters after returning from addressing officials of the Barbados Association of Office Professionals earlier that afternoon at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

 

While BUT officials were awaiting a response from the Minister to a letter which they said was sent earlier that morning, when the media asked the Minister about the letter he said it was not received. At the end of the press conference just around 4: 30 pm, the Minister checked with his secretary and informed the media there was no correspondence up to that time.

 

The Minister used the opportunity to address reports circulating that the Barbados Secondary Entrance Exam could be affected by strike action if it spilled over into next week. He assured that a back-up plan is in place to ensure that all 3 600 students will take the exam next Tuesday.

 

“All plans are in place for the conduct of that exam. I am saying to parents. Have no worry. I want to thank all those persons who would have called. It is amazing. So many Barbadians past teachers, persons involved in NGOS in all walks of life have said, ‘We cannot do this to our children, we stand ready to be mobilised at the instant’. We want to thank them for that.”

 

The education officials revealed that over the past two months several meetings were held with teachers’ unions, the most recent of which was held last week with Chief Education Officer Karen Best.

 

However, the Minister expressed concern about the way in which this matter unfolded, saying that the letter which was sent to the union on Tuesday was a genuine invitation to sit and discuss the matters at hand. He said the BUT seemingly misinterpreted the final line of his letter which asked for parameters to be outlined.

 

“Collate and collect any information so that we can research that information, so that we can present on that information. Those are simple things called parameters, the boundaries, the outline. I was shocked that last paragraph could have been so interpreted.

 

“What is critical though is that unions and this ministry … it is almost like unwritten protocols for the treatment for all kinds of matters. And we don’t first go to the media, but we first communicate to those parties that we would want to meet and have those things discussed.

 

“I was therefore really shocked that on Friday I could be hearing across the public space that there is a request for a meeting, no contact, but parallel with that, standing next to that, ‘that if you don’t have a meeting, this would be the consequences of not having a meeting’.

 

“I don’t want to cast any aspersions on anybody, but let us return to those days when we are able to satisfy the agenda of all parties concerned in a harmonious manner and harmonious relationship, which does not push education and teachers to the kind of blatant glare that there are now exposed to.”

 

Similar sentiments were expressed by Senator Husbands who, like the Minister, has a strong union background, and said he is unclear what process was followed that it could have broken down to this point.

 

“Industrial relations is a system… I don’t know that you say that you want a meeting within 48 hours that you are going to go on strike. That is not industrial relations as I have practiced it, been taught it, as I have taught it. So I am mystified moreso than anything else about the process. Articulate for me what exactly is your grievance and what is the process that has broken down,” he advised

The Minister said he would also be open to meet with union officials “a Saturday” to pull all grievances together and in the interest of not impacting schools during the school week. (JH)