Teachers’ Union remains firm on SBA issue

Correspondence from the Ministry of Education (MOE) to the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) indicating that the Solicitor General has determined that the School Based Assessments (SBAs) form part of the teachers’ duties, has not changed that Union’s resolve not to correct the SBAs unless they are compensated.

 

The Union is in fact challenging that declaration, contending that the three-sentence correspondence sent by email provided no basis on which the decision was made. Moreover, President Mary Ann Redman said that so general was the correspondence, that it simply refers to SBAs and does not explicitly state SBAs on behalf of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC).

 

Addressing the Union’s membership yesterday evening at Solidarity House, Redman charged that the Ministry’s response of April 19, 2016 is really tantamount to them saying “we say SBA work is your duty, shut up and do it”. She is adamant that it was dismissive and insulting to the teachers’ body, especially after the BSTU sent correspondence to the Ministry dated March 3, in which it outlined in detail the basis for their official position, and quoted documents registering their objection to the SBA work going back as far as 1997.

 

Hinting at the possibility of legal action, Redman told the members present that in response to the Ministry’s letter, they have made it clear that the teachers will not be moving from their stated position in the “absence of any reasoned and or reasonable response”.

 

“The Solicitor General is entitled to her opinion and so are we, and we gave the bases for ours, they have not given us any basis on which they have returned that opinion. The law courts can settle as is deemed necessary and the status quo remains – we will not correct without compensation. Any teacher worth his or her salt should be incensed at this insult, and many were,” she said.

 

With that in mind, the union boss urged any teacher who has already marked the SBAs for the subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate level not to correct any SBAs for the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence, the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination, or the Caribbean Vocational Qualifications levels.

 

“If you do not stand for yourself now, then you allow the Ministry of Education and CXC to move over time to perhaps make you correct a full examination for them free of cost… because the trend is, especially at CAPE, the SBA is now being worth more and more of that final exam – 60 and 70 per cent in subjects that have recently been introduced and that are to be introduced. What is to stop them from moving to a 100 per cent?”

 

Redman added, “The relationship between the Ministry of Education, our employer and them hiring out our services free of cost to CXC, is like Massy taking some workers from their supermarket and making an arrangement with Cave Shepherd to let some work in the shoe department… without Cave Shepherd paying them. And they are working at night, on the weekend, in addition to their normal job, and if they make mistakes they have to pay for those mistakes as well.”

 

Further contending that the SBAs are the property of CXC and that the examination body is not the teachers’ employer, Redman maintained marking those documents cannot be part of their regular duties. As such, she revealed that in the letter sent to the Ministry on April 19, in addition to asking for the basis of the opinion to be provided, the Union has asked for copies of all correspondence between the MOE and the Solicitor General’s Office to be made available to them, including the specific questions which were sent to the Solicitor General and the specific responses made, as well as the accompanying references.  (JRT)