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Posted: Wednesday 29 October, 2014 at 11:27 AM

PM: Nothing wrong with BHS… labels teachers’ actions “irresponsible"

By: Terresa McCall, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – “There is nothing wrong with the school. I am a parent, I am a medical doctor, I have seen the reports myself, I have read them both and the school is safe for us to continue to conduct our business of teaching students and learning as students and thus making sure that the fears and the anxieties of our parents disappear. Let the school settle down…”

     

    This was the plea reiterated by Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas yesterday (Oct. 28) on his weekly radio programme, “Ask the Prime Minister”.

     

    He was making reference to the ongoing Basseterre High School saga which has gotten to the point where teachers, students and some parents have engaged in active protest against what they claimed to be a contaminated environment which has resulted in a number of rash outbreaks, respiratory illnesses, headaches etc.

     

    Prime Minister Douglas berated the teachers for, as he explained, demonstrating when they should be in their classrooms teaching. He also said the situation calls for a review of the teachers’ employment appointment.

     

    “…It is not at all right for teachers to be out of the classroom, out on the street with students demonstrating when they should be in their classrooms. And so that is something definitely that has to be looked at because parents have already been calling on the Ministry and on the government. ‘So what exactly is happening here? We send our students, our children out as students to go to school and teachers have them outside demonstrating?’ 

     

    “That is what the government is being asked by parents. And there is where the responsibility of teachers comes into question. And there is where I believe the whole system of their appointment also has to be looked at because if teachers feel that the school environment is not conducive to their health and their well-being after being shown that there is really nothing wrong with the school to prevent them from working there or from students learning there, then they have the right to ask the Ministry to transfer us. They have that right. But it is not right for them to have students, children of parents who are sent to school to learn, to be outside there demonstrating when they should be teaching and the students should be learning.”

     

    Dr. Douglas said it is irresponsible for teachers to hold protest action after analyses have been conducted on the school and deemed it habitable. 

     

    “If after a full analysis of the health and environmental conditions in the Basseterre High School, after full assessment by two organisations that have been agreed upon by the teachers themselves at the school and the government and the Parent Teachers Association and the Union, having now heard their reports and have said that the school is fit to continue to be an environment conducive to learning and teaching and they continue to hold out after this, I am saying, that the action that is being taken by the teachers is irresponsible. It is irresponsible!”

     

    He said even if the protest action were “called by the Union”, it is still “irresponsible because they cannot be judge and jury”.

     

    Dr. Douglas questioned the role, “direction and the directive”, of the Principal of the BHS concerning the protest action taken by the teachers and students.

     

    A serious look into the situation has to be made, the Prime Minister expressed, indicating that the students’ education is suffering as a result.

     

    “As I said before, when May and June come and they have to write their exams, the teachers would be writing the exams for the students? When they have their CXCs to write to pass to advance in their own school and academic career, who is going to do it for them? And that is why the Ministry of Education has to begin to look into this matter seriously. Why are teachers outside of the classroom, on the street demonstrating with students?”

     

    “…It is not responsible for teachers to continue to have students outside of their classrooms…”

     

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