@Caswell

We can disagree of course. If you know any of the teachers tell them BU advises to get to hell to work and teach the nation’s children.

You are right, we can disagree. If you know the Prime Minister, Minister of Education or any members of the Public Service Commission, you can tell them get to hell out of office because they are making this country look like a banana republic.

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Amazing

I keep telling people that it is never about what a politician says: it is always about the message that has been received. It is an unwritten rule that a politician never abuses his constituents, and trust me when I tell you that many people, who heard the speech, are very offended.

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Caswell for the love of Jesus H. Christ give us a f**k**g break take a rest from the blog you come like Ole Peter Onion Bags you making us sick to the stomach. Good Lord man go for a staycation or something.

@Caswell

Every day people in this country go to work in conditions which are less than ideal. The MoE left the door open for discussion to take place to fine tune the moves. The solution here will not be perfect, there has to be some give and take for the children’s sake.

nobody wants to see the children suffer. but what we have now are disgruntled and frustrated teachers who are expected to take up new post. how does that translate to a productive learning enviroment forchildren?.

@David of BU “Does any sensible person believe these people are sick? Does anyone believe that the children looking on believe these people to be sick? How will this dishonest action impact the children’s future behaviour?”

I don’t believe that these teachers are sick. I don’t believe that Jeff Broomes is sick

In future some of of the generation ow at school will grow up to be just like Jeff and just like their teachers. They will send in sick notes whenever. Some of them will be doctors who will write sick notes for all and sundry.

Barbados is going to hell in a hand basket.

As for the Prime Minister’s statement. He implied that field workers are incapable of solving problems. He implied as well that people who have graduated from universities are better at solving problems that people in the past who worked as field labourers.

Neither of these statements is true.

The Prime Minister has not been able to solve this problem either. What does it say about that particular university graduate?

The Alexandra school problem is no longer a legal problem or a union problem, it has become a medical/psychiactric problem.

All parties to this problem (especially the politicians) should take their sick certificates and report to the Psychiactric Hospital immediately.

Last year I paid more than $25,000 in income taxes and near $5,000 in national insurance, and I am afraid to count how much in VAT, except please know that there is 17% VAT is on nearly everything.

And this is what I get for my money?

I think that I will call in sick today and get a sick note for the rest of the month, because why should I continue working to pay these jackasses? And I mean the politicians too (especially the politicians)

Looking at the decision by the MoE many aspects of it may be questioned by the critics, armchair et al but what can’t be question is the principle of the decision. Companies looking to chart a new or different path will change the culture from time to time by parachuting in new resources. Will there be collateral damage? Yes! HR matters are always messy. It is time to turn a new page.

@ac
Disgruntled and frustrated, or selfish and disruptive?

Mind you I overheard a Cabinet member say recently, “the fact that you pay taxes has nothing to do with anything”

One day coming soon…

agree with Caswell whole-heartedly. Don’t let your detractors silence you Caswell.

My grandmother and grandfather worked in the cane-fields and thanks to them they were able to bequeath property to me. The PM seems to think that he is in a higher class to everyone else.

Owen said on many occasions his mother was a shop keeper. Freundel likes to hide from his past like he is ashamed of it. Why is it the DLP always ready to belittle and offend cane-cutters and “toilet scrubbers”. Our economy was built on the backs of these people and for him to now be so offensive towards my grandparents and great grandparents IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. EVERYONE contributes to Barbados regardless of their job. Once they do a good job we should embrace them and not alienate, belittle or be offensive to them. PM should look back in his family history and make a serious apology.

When he aint disrespecting Bajans about people nursing he, it is he aint giving a running commentary at which phase he is at, or he aint reading no stolen CLICO report, or he nose to big to be prime minister. THIS MAN GOT A SERIOUS INFERIORITY COMPLEX.

@ Caswell
Of course you are correct in your assessment of the situation at AX. But Bushie hopes that you don’t expect support from most Bajans who have not done ANYTHING RIGHT now in recent history.

@David, your position on this is so pathetic that Bushie wonders which David this is…. The Madame?

What did you say?
HR is always messy?
Forget the mistakes and go and teach the people’s children. ?

You sound like Yardbroom. This is the recipe for mediocrity, but then again, that is the Bajan way.

If teachers feel aggrieved enough to be sick when they should be teaching, EVEN IF THEY WENT TO SCHOOL WHAT KIND OF TEACHING WOULD YOU EXPECT?
Teachers are not loading canes.
A teacher NEEDS to feel comfortable, motivated, valued and at ease in their job. They need to CARE about the children’s success

How is that possible when YOU ADMIT that the authorities have made multiple mistakes and foul ups?
Why is the Minister and PM allowed to do shoite and be excused but the teachers should “go and teach”

STOP PICKING ON THE TEACHERS. THEY ARE VICTIMS JUST LIKE THE CHILDREN.
The VILLIANS are the HIGH-UPS with university degrees at the MOE and in BAY STREET who have made a TOTAL MESS of the situation

What go an teach what children what?!

……fix the REAL damn problem!

I hear Massa Freundel Stuart announcing the election date on Errol Barrow Day. Well the cane-cutters and “toilet-scrubbers” will show him how intelligent they are and they now how to solve a problem.

They will assist in ridding Barbados of this current PM problem. They know how to solve this problem. All it takes is a little (X).

@Bushie

Actually BU blames the parents and the wider public for the mess we find ourselves.

@ac
The action was fully legal and followed all rules and policies. What rights are they standing up for now??

@david
“What can’t be questioned is the principle”
Hear hear. We’ve finally reached a point of agreement in totality. The longer this goes on the worse for the BSTU because the end result will be the same. Also, these 2 meetings, and now sick leave by most of the teachers is tantamount to industrial action (sick out etc.) without official statement of a grievance in the right place.

@ac
The one thing that I have gleaned from all the nonsense that was allowed to go on at the Commission of Enquiry was that some of the teachers themselves were involved in creating the “hostile environment”. It is evident that when this happens, they are setting themselves up to achieve a set of aims that suits them and nobody else, especially the children. I’ve had a child at school and I have seen how some of these teachers operate with a “holier than thou” attitude. Even 15 years ago, we had the spectacle of teachers at my daughter’s school being absent for many of their classes. Now, instead of holding parent/teacher consultations after school, we are being told that we have to let parents leave their place of work, and possibly lose income, so that they can attend these meetings during school hours. This is the tail wagging the dog, and it’s nonesense!

@ Peltdownman
…come on you can do better than that….
“SOME teachers play the ass…”
So does some judges, lawyers, businessman, bloggers (like ac)….musicians, tailors, masons…

All this tells you is that THERE IS NOT SUFFICIENT MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL in place to properly guide the system. Can that be the teachers’ fault?
Most of the other teachers were probably more pissed with the bad teachers than you were, BUT THEY CAN DO NOTHING ABOUT IT

It is the MINISTRY and MINISTER’s responsibility to set standards and put SYSTEMS in place to maintain them.

..again you are blaming teachers wrongfully.

David; The AX matter, as far as the legal aspects are concerned, may appear to be on the cusp of a solution but appearances might still be deceptive. A lot more can happen within the next few days. e.g., I am amazed that most if not all AX teacher transferees were maintaining their defiant stance up to yesterday in spite of the very serious implicit threats thrown their way by Minister Jones, who really should have been the first one to be transferred to another ministry for the part he played in the overall AX matter.

The AX teacher’s stance is totally Unbajan. Most of us would have run for cover, reported for duty at the new school and maintained that bad leadership got us in the position. Not so the Redman led troops. They sincerely believe in their new cause that the transfers were illogical, poorly conceived and executed and punitive, whether they can prevail or not. I think they deserve some kudos in maintaining their stance in this matter even if they were misguided and appear to have consistently put the welfare of the children last in their consideration.

BAFBFP, in my view a breath of fresh air for Barbados in standing up for one’s convictions and principles. So please add the AX teachers to your list, whatever the outcomes of these apparent winding up skirmishes.

Re. the Children, I think Minister Jones, who had apparently not washed his hands clean of the AX affair after his rebuff by the PM last year but might have allowed it to fester, showed absolutely no regard for the children’s welfare in sanctioning and perhaps fine tuning the transfers. This matter did not require the transfers of 20 or so teachers at this time. 3 would have sufficed to make his point and would also have been politically feasible. But perhaps his aim was to kill two birds with one stone. Mary Redman and FS.

Have you considered that the most direct action (but of course a politically impossible one at this stage, if one were really putting the concerns of the students at the very centre of the action and ignoring other concerns) might be to partially accede to what Mary Redman is calling for, i.e. recalling most of the transfers? I suspect that peace would prevail for the next 2 terms; Mary and Broomes would continue their action off camera; the current MOE would be no longer there after the elections, whoever won; perhaps Freundel would not be there as PM, whoever won; etc.?

Imho, this whole matter has been an exercise in mind games by several actors to guide the discussion to be supportive of their vested interests. The teachers, the Ministry, the Minister, the PM, the PSC, the CPO, the two teachers’ Unions and Broomes. The interests of the children has been placed last in this milieu by practically all of the actors (Indeed, I think Broomes has been demonstrably the one actor who has generally seemed to have had the interests of the students somewhat at heart throughout this saga)

This AX matter will not solve the elephant of the paramountcy of individual self interest in the nadir in which the Education system now finds itself. The politicians will ensure that.

@ David:
“Surely educated Barbadians understand what the Prime Minister meant by comparing knowledge workers of today to field hands of yore?”

So what should the “Uneducated” Bajan understand from the PM’s statement?
By “Educated” do you mean possessing a university degree?

What a reasonable person would conclude is that the PM’s rash statement implies that people who work in the cane fields are stupid and lacking in any decision-making skills like negotiation and compromise.

What is paramount is the presence of commonsense and ultimate concern for the educational well being of the children who are the future of the society.
Is the PM insinuating that people who work in the sugar cane fields lack common sense and a sense of caring for children? Children learn what they live.

By linking the absence of these qualities to cane field workers this man has done a serious disservice to this sector of the Bajan society, past and present.
Maybe if he had said the those university graduates who can’t resolve the Ax matter should go back being maids and domestic servants in the white people houses it would resonate more with the truth of his own personal experience growing up. His sensitivities and sensibilities might have been more acutely offended and after cogitating would have awoken to the reality that he insulted him family.

He needs to apologise for this stupid supercilious derogatory remark putting down the vast majority of people who ever lived in this country.

Bajans have practiced the art of subservancy to a “T”. well doesn.t the teachers ” rights” not includes “clarity” and specification on the transfers which at this/time such questions which they are asking has not been answered by anyone in the MOE.

Fuh god sake Pletdown how does would one expect a caged animal to respond if abused by its owner. at some point and time the response would detertimental. these teachers endured enough and responsed admirably given the circumstances which they worked under for ten years. now the management team have let them down. if it takes sick out to straigthen this mess out so be it for one can not expect people to remain dormant in the face of injustice.

It bothers me, when last Mary Redman taught at the school she is assigned to? Is my taxes and that of the parents/guardians of the same disadvantaged paying Ms Redman to unfair their children? This government needs to take the bull by the horns and put an end to this crisis. Failing to resolve this matter quickly and decisively will only drive another nail in their coffin for the next general elections.

Observingyou say the “action was legal and followed policies” then why were they apparant errors in issuing transfers .that is what one would beieve on the surface. i noticed also that the CTUSAB is also asking questions. maybe you observing need to hold your horses just for a little while longer.

@ David
Boot camp?
Slash and burn?
…when the real David comes back, check with Bushie…. 😉

@ Check-it Out
It is just a matter of simple common sense. One has to be careful of reacting to symptoms, and focus on the ROOT cause of problems.
It is the only way to solve them.

But if we normally did this in Barbados, things would not now be falling apart as they are….

@ ac
It is uncomfortable being on the same side as you are….. Rest assured, it will NOT last 🙂

@ ! | January 9, 2013 at 9:22 AM |
“His statement was simply that if we spend all this time in a classroom learning and cannot sit with each other and reasonably discuss issues like human beings, what is the sense?”

So why not make reference to those white and mulatto Bajans who sat in Board rooms in Bridgetown and made decisions to sell out traditional Barbados businesses to the Trinidadians.

Why not make reference to those who sat around the CLICO Board room table and allowed the crooks to fleece the educated descendants of these cane field workers.

Listen “!”, only black people worked in the cane field many of them driven to death by the same white or mulatto overseer (subsequently graduated to the Board room) on a mule or horse in cork hat with a whip like a cat-o-nine tail in hand to cut the lazy niggers’ backside.