‘Teacher not teaching’ an open issue

Principal of Alexandra School Jeff Broomes at today's Commission of Inquiry. (Shaka Mayers)

Mon, July 02, 2012 - 7:27 PM

The issue of a teacher refusing to teach classes remains an open dispute after all that has happened at Alexandra School, including industrial action and the current Commission of Inquiry at the Gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Complex.

According to Vernon Smith, QC and counsel for Alexandra principal Jeff Broomes, no specific meeting has been held so far to get the side of that teacher; while at the same time Broomes’ public remarks were the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and sparked the industrial dispute that became the centre of Barbadians’ concern throughout January this year.

Smith suggested that the situation of a teacher not teaching for a term was of interest to the public, but today’s lone witness, former permanent secretary Bruce Alleyne, insisted that he himself would have dealt with the matter privately.

Smith also suggested that the ministry never held a meeting with the teacher to whom Broomes referred so as to get her side, and called it “an open issue that has to be dealt with by the ministry”. Alleyne agreed.

Full reports from today's Commission of Inquiry in tomorrow's DAILY NATION