BU continues to critical about the lack of leadership in almost every sphere of activity in Barbados. Have a look at the Barbados Today story Thumbs Up! Never thought the day would arrive when local media would have to run PR stories regarding how safe it is to be in Barbados. One of our enduring characteristics has been a low crime environment. It had been the main ingredient which underpinned the boast of being a stable country.
The lack of a strategy to drive a national sports program has again exposed itself with the recent NAPSAC and BSSAC fiasco. Yesterday Minister of Education mouthed the usual sound bite after a reasonable CARIFTA performance that Barbados needs to “pump more money into track and field”. Minister of Sports Stephen Lashley continues to absolve the government and his ministry about the lack of planning and leadership which has resulted in a botching of NAPSAC and BSSAC. Minister Lashley don’t you get it? It does not matter whose fault it is the National Stadium is unavailable. What is germane is that no vision, read leadership, was demonstrated to put a contingency plan in place as part of the National Stadium project. Instead we had to witness the fiasco yesterday at Weymouth where 15 out of 22 secondary schools snubbed a last ditch effort to stage BSSAC which was held under the aegis of a group called the Physical Education Teachers Association of Barbados. While this group agreed to staging the meet surely it is the principals whose ‘buyin’ would have been necessary to stage BSSAC.
This decision by 15 secondary schools to spurn a directive issued by the Minister of Education delivered in a memorandum signed by Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Cecile Humphrey should not be ignored for the message it sent. It is evident Minster Jones’ dictatorial style, yet again, has been shown to be ineffective. BU understands at some schools the principals communicated the instruction received in the Humphrey memo to students, and left the decision to compete to the children, who obviously showed their disapproval by choosing not to turn up. One can only hope that Minister Jones will be driven to a state of introspection, and any attempt to discipline or transfer principals remain a distant thought.
What we have here is another violent symptom of the dearth of leadership at play in Barbados. Minister Jones was part of the problem which precipitated the Alexandra School mess, yet he was rewarded by Prime Minister Stuart by returning to him the single most important ministry in Cabinet. Be reminded that Minister Jones issued an edict several years ago that students should NOT take to school mobile phones yet it continues without a thought. Our athletes at the junior level are competing based on raw talent. To make the transition to the seniors more than talent will be required.
Are we there yet?
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