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Posted: Thursday 23 October, 2014 at 2:25 PM

BHS protest continues into third day… Min. Carty to meet with teachers today

By: Terresa McCall, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – TEACHERS and students of the Basseterre High School (BHS) braved rainy weather this morning (Oct. 23) to continue their protest action outside the western entrance to the compound which is located at Victoria Road.

     

    In excess of 20 teachers, an increase from the number in previous days, and a group of students found themselves at the protest spot just about 9:00a.m. and following a brief devotional period, the strains of the BHS school song “Principia non Homines” were echoed through the crowd.

     

    Both teachers and students appeared with their placards and on a couple of occasions, rain fell prompting some to scamper for shelter.

     

    On the last occasion however, most of the teachers, fitted with their umbrellas, stood firm in the pouring rain with their placards in hand.

     

    The protest began, according to information gained from interviews with both teachers and students over the past days, because the Ministry of Education seems not to be taking the current state of affairs at the schools seriously. Scores of reports of sickness, headaches, rashes, respiratory problems etc. have been reported since the commencement of the new school year.

     

    In an interview with the media yesterday, President of the St. Kitts Teachers Union Bishop Ron Collins said the situation has progressed to a point where it is now unbearable.

     

    “When we agreed and we encouraged our teachers to support the return to school, we understood that there might be illnesses here and there but not at this volume, not in this intensity. And what we have seen is a return to that level of ‘normalcy’ in the sick reports that were being experienced before.”

     

    He said “a number of things have not happened as we expected” and explained that the Union has been receiving reports from ailing teachers. 

     

    “The teachers, we continue to meet every Friday and look at the various recommendations, new recommendations and problems that are being experienced with the hope of making certain adjustments to remedy situations…The bottom line is simply people are getting sick and they are coming to us; parents, teachers, students, an increasing number of them are coming and showing their ailments to us.

     

    “We have pictures now that we’ll be sharing about the level of illness. We have teachers who are now on sick leave and the teachers met with the Teachers Union a couple of weeks ago and advised them of all that they’ve been experiencing. As a result of that, the Teachers Union took the decision to withdraw support of the Ministry in having the teachers at this compound.”

     

    According to Collins, the teachers of the BHS have clearly indicated that they no longer want to be located at the BHS compound.

     

    “We have expressed this to the Ministry that we want to continue to look at what are the ailments, look at all the remedial work that is to be done and work in a consultative way to address them. But we were not prepared to do that while persons were getting sick in this way.

     

    “They want to be removed. They have made that very clear to the Union that they are not prepared to stay here any longer… It’s been like two years of stress with no relief. Every week there is a new situation, reports of illnesses, persons are frustrated.”

     

    SKNVibes was successful in contacting Minister of Education Nigel Carty today and when questioned about the protest and about Collins’ comments, he informed that he does not have a comment as this time as he is scheduled to meet with the teachers this afternoon.

     

    Asked if he would available for interview with the media following his meeting with the teachers, the Minister said he thinks that would be the case.

     

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