The issue of a teacher refusing to teach classes remains an open dispute after all that has happened at the Alexandra School, including industrial action and the current Commission of Inquiry at the Gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex.
According to Vernon Smith, QC, counsel for Alexandra principal Jeff Broomes, no specific meeting has been held so far to get the side of that teacher; 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 yesterday’s lone witness, former Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Bruce Alleyne, insisted that he himself would have dealt with the matter privately.
Smith also suggested that the Ministry of Education 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”. (RJ)
