I am happy that the PM has been able to have the teachers agree to return to school.  Clearly he saw this as paramount to all the pandemonium, and I am happy that the teachers have agreed. There are still many ills to be addressed in all of this and the PM must see to it that this occurs. I have listened to some callers to the live programme and I really don’t see the need to apportion blame one way or another. When Mr Jones received his present assignment, I was opposed to it and had blogged as such since I believe that it is not always prudent to place Ministers in their area of expertise. I saw trouble on the horizon and felt that he was so close knit with his brethren/peers that it would have been virtually impossible for him to manage effectively without offending some. IT HAS COME TO PASS.  Then there is too much infighting among heads attempting to gravitate towards superiority in the Ministry. The losers at time take this loss to heart and therein commences the bad blood in what was a previously strong bond.  It happened recently too. So the Minister is now forced to ‘pick side’. This perhaps is the very reason why he took no action on the report. I therefore think the PM’s first order of the day is to reshuffle/replace that Minister. 
There is a big problem also with the dysfunctional state of the Ministry of Education. in part, it stems from the fact that the Ministry is heavily weighed with teachers and senior teachers who have grown tired of teaching the people’s children and at the first whisper of a pending vacancy, they make a beeline to that hive. While there are skilled as teachers/ heads and can manage a class/school, there are ill equipped for administrative and other positions. Small wonder that little is produced and the Ministry is in such chaos.

Get wunna backsides back to teach the people children. Who the hell wunna tink wunna is holding the damn school children at ransom.

On top of that, not one blind cent for the time wunna play wunna striking.

Get-a-stepping!

cont’d:
Since headship is limited,  Government has to be decided if this is the course of promotion for those teachers who feel stagnant, but the beeline to the Ministry is not the best course.  Some hold positions in that Ministry about which they have little clue. Enough said.
The Ministry needs in someways to tighten some screws on teachers. I have no clue how it will be done, and I guess it is one of those sensitive areas where they must thread carefully. .....Thank you teachers for finally agreeing to return to school. You must follow through Mr P.M

Does the Nation staffer responsible for vetting recognise that the way my blog was edited, the last two paragraphs makes little sense base on the topic area I introduced then? What is wrong with you people? When will you people continue to sweep the truth under the carpet, how do we correct the muck?

I am elated that the Prime Minister came to some type of a decision, for welfare of the students.  But I have to ask, is it good to put all those horses back in the same stable?  The tension is defiantly going to be something else. Also, how are the teachers going to make up “every lost minute” to the students?”  Are they going to spin a web and bring it all together? Lost time - be it seconds, minutes, hours or days are no longer there; it is gone forever. Benjamin Franklin said, “Lost time is never found again”. Nevertheless, I respect the Prime Minister’s decision.

Barbadians despite they love for education have a mentality like the village brawlers of old.Noise and confusion,cussing and carrying on.The Prime Minister enter the “Circus ” like an educated gentleman and stop all the bacchanal which was feed by the media and so had papers selling.
We need to rise to a level that reflects the fact that we are educated and deal with our issues with the maturity and understanding that education ought to have given us.Aspects of our past village life we need to regain but some aspects of those days of old we also need to let go off. Despite our development and material success sometimes we go about our affairs like the village drunkard.Keeping a lot of noise for nothing.Or behaving like the village bully, in that believing that our education and material success give us the right to not hear others and to treat them as though they are not equal to us.Then like the village crowd we stand on the side,  jeering and cheering before we try to make peace.Forgetting we either going to live and take care of each other as a village or end up alone in the Alms house.

The decision to get teachers back into the classroom was long overdue and I am happy to see it finally happen.  That was the primary objective of the parent body when they went to the Ministry of Education last week after three weeks of pain. At least it’s a start.

After listening to the interview I was a little puzzled though.  Yes, I agree that children should stay out some matters but how were fifth formers supposed to do that?  They were unfortunately dragged into the mess when some members of staff decided to withdraw their services. Parents did not put them into that position.  Teachers did. 

Were the students supposed to sit by and say nothing?  To make matters worse they were exposed to undesirable email sent by some of the same members of staff who were on strike.  How were they supposed to feel comfortable about that?  Is this a case of ‘be seen but not heard? ‘.  I have no problem with children expressing themselves just as long as they are not being rude or disrespectful. 

To the best of my knowledge, they expressed themselves quite well and it was done in the presence of parents; not in the presence of the principal or the teachers but parents.

Let’s just hope that they can settle in, complete their SBAs and fully prepare for CXCs. 

Unfortunately, they cannot write ‘Lesson in Life’ on their application forms for tertiary institutions.

What were the conditions under which these teachers agreed to return to work?
How does it affect the accepted union/industrial protocols when a union with a grievance publicly refuses to negotiate unless their specific and definitive outcome is already in place?

A wrong precedent has been set and there has been no semblance of accountabilty from the responsible Ministry.

The students have already suffered and the school is divided and in disarray.
Lost teaching time cannot be recovered and slower learners cannot play “catch-up”.
It is idiotic and self-serving to even suggest that.
I am pleased that Barbadians did not sit back and settle for this nonsense and that the media did not flinch from its duty.
I am pleased that our young students spoke out with frankness and intelligence about a crisis that directly impacted on them.Their future looks bright.
It takes a subservient,delusional mentality to suggest that conscious activism be exchanged for placid,useless decorum when confronted by these issues.
This was no “circus”. After all, a society only descends to the level of circus and chaos when it lacks leadership.

‘Circus’ ?  Indeed it was.  Could it not have been shut down two weeks ago? It became what it was because of the inability of those in charge to act swiftly.

I sincerely hope that another parent or student ever has to go through an episode like this again.  They are the ones who were the real victims.

@
pan wallie.be thankful that they split your comment, mine was over the limit and they exorcised it..lol. i agree with the comments you made, i am appalled at the public not realizing and acknowledging that the minister/ministry of education is the root of this problem… we are here beating up on jeff and mary. instead of telling mr.jones to grow or go’’ that last statement was self censored