Jones: Focus on teaching

MINISTER OF EDUCATION Ronald Jones yesterday launched a broadside against militant secondary school teachers and their unions, saying they should concentrate on teaching and not on striking for “basic things”.

In an obvious reference to the Mary Redman-led Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union, Jones told a Caribbean Development Bank/UNESCO four-day workshop on education at Accra Beach Hotel, Christ Church, that too many of the island’s teachers spent too much time arguing for too many basic things – salaries, wages and good conditions of service.

“And therefore (they) become distracted from developing quality methods to impact on our children. So how do we correct that or can we correct that? Let us march rather than teach. And then to find the march didn’t go anywhere and didn’t do anything.” (HLE)

Please read the full story in today’s Midweek Nation, or in the eNATION edition.