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JEFF BROOMES Again

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Jeff Broomes, Principal of Parkinson Memorial School
Jeff Broomes, Principal of Parkinson Memorial School

The Alexandra School Saga provoked the intervention of Prime Minister Stuart and led to the establishment of the Alexandra Commission of Inquiry.  Six hundred thousand dollars later many of the actors were transferred hither thither an yon or forced to retire BUT the principle actor has re-emerged, Principal JEFF BROOMES.

News broke yesterday {28/10/2014) that Parkinson Memorial School was forced to close around midday because 39 out of 61 staff members decided to attend a meeting at the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) headquarters to air “grievances over the management style and other practices of principal JEFF BROOMES. For many it evoked a feeling of déjà vu. It was not a strike action but the union obviously sanctioned the meeting.

Many will again take sides, BU prefers to locate the JEFF BROOMES issue in the realm of Barbados’ capacity to solve problems. If JEFF BROOMES has a management style that is creating tension at the school, there are tried and tested management methods to diagnose and inform a solution.

The Parkinson Broomes imbroglio is analogous to the unravelling WICB WIPA dispute. The buck stops with the WICB in the same way it stops with the ministry of education and government.

Barbadians were assured at the time the Waterman recommendations were implemented the JEFF BROOMES problem would be solved. A lot of political mileage was made of it. The fact the problem has resurfaced has however come as no surprise to sensible Barbadians. Many prefer to focus on JEFF BROOMES but the ministry of education and the Barbados Union of Teachers are the other actors who deserve to be thrust under the microscope as well.

The reported exchange which took place between deputy chief education officer David Clement and a NATION newspaper team at the school is instructive. The  security guard was advised to call the police if the NATION team refused to leave the school premises yesterday. The BU household in a similar situation would have approached the media personnel and issued a statement even if it was to state the obvious.

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202 responses to “JEFF BROOMES Again”

  1. JEFF BROOMES Again – Vibe Audio StationVibe Audio Station

    […] JEFF BROOMES Again […]

  2. ac Avatar
    ac

    me bosey not taking no sides in this new saga but this i will say, onions are good until they start to rotten,

  3. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    The problem did not start at Alexandra … I started at St Micheal’s …

  4. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Freundel Stuart can do what Tom did with Nigel Harper.Place Broomes in an office with the assignment to review the Education Act to give it more teeth to resolve disputes between the schools and the Ministry ofEducation.
    For a start unions display a total lack of interest in the education of the children.The big egos of teachers and unions want busting wide open and that includes the guerilla tactcs they employ.But Stuart was/is a teacher as Jones so I don’t think they would want to be seen to be rocking the boat.Barbados is so badly off with these clowns for a cabinet.

  5. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Terms of reference. Rules and regulations.
    SOPs (Standard operating procedure)

    wtf is wrong wid wunna educated Bajans?

    How is it possible for the same situation to repeat itself in learning institutions?

  6. JEFF BROOMES Again – Black Caribbean On-Line

    […] By David […]

  7. Bag Juice Avatar
    Bag Juice

    Well, the Barbadian public use to crucify the Alexandra teachers when they had their issues with Jeff Broomes. In the public’s mind, Jeff Broomes was the best thing since slice bread and the teachers were oh so wrong. I am enjoying what is happening at Parkinson and with the Barbados Union of Teachers involved, it makes me happier. Go Broomes Go !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tornment their souls.

  8. StupseAgain Avatar
    StupseAgain

    I support Broomes this time

  9. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Unions will always give power hungry nonentities a platform to create mischief and be heard/seen doing so.Look around and see how all these union maguffies go on to become deputy chief this and that and ambassador this and that….In almost all cases its folk who think their status is on the wrong rung of the social ladder and use these shouting and chest pounding tantrums to move up that ladder…..But class is class…Either you have it or you don’t.An unfortunate upbringing manifests itself the moment you challenge these glorified bullies.They become out of control.Besides Broomes ,Farley, Best,Goddard and the idyut Clarke are examples.No class.Just like to be in the public eye.JA’;s whom politicians love to hate when the shoe is on the other foot.See how the fairy Jones behaves.You won’t think this verbally challenged man was a union president teaching class 2 infants for a living.The Westminster system allow a class 2 infants teacher to become a minister of education and people expect earth shattering change in that Ministry.Won’t happen.Jones is a piss poor minister and some would say a person of dubious character in matters of the football fraternity of buhbaydus and beyond..

  10. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Hi Undle Jeff. Is you again?

  11. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Some of the Jeff Broomes teachers claimed that it was the menopausal women at Alexandra.

    So who is in the menopause at Parkinson now?

    What if Uncle Jeff is the miserable menopausal one?

    What if the only problem is Uncle Jeff?

    Are we going to spend $600,000 again playing musical chairs with our teachers??

    When me and thousands of other taxpayers wait hungrily for our refunds?

    I say fire the trouble maker.

    And if he sues so what?

    Our courts take so long to decide anything that he will be dead long before a decision is made.

    Stupseeeeee!!!!!!!

  12. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Do they teach conflict resolution to anybody in babadus ?

    Broomes should do like Georgie Porgie and focus on International cricket.lol

  13. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    BROOMES should be fired.
    ….mean he ain’t figure out yet that when in Rome yuh should do as the Romans do…?
    Shiite man….. Just turn up for work and let the damn teachers do what the hell they like…. What computer studies what? What timetable changes what? What special programs what?

    Mean you ain’t learn nothin from Alexandria? Why you feel Bushie ain’t want no pick bout here?
    Why you feel Caswell refuses to start BUP? ….We don’t waste time swimming upstream skippa….

    Bushie says let us bring back Dompey as Principal of Parkinson…..bet we won’t hear a single complaint from the union…..
    LOL …and even though only about 5% of the students may pass any certificates we would be sure that they will all came out dropping a LOTTA big able words….even if they can’t spell them…. LOL ha ha

    It is only obvious….Bajans on the whole are brass bowls whose every facet of life has been taken over by foreigners. This is so because our education system has been a dismal failure – which speaks to the jokers we have as teachers…..

    Broomes may be no saint (like some here on BU), but ANYONE who tries to polish brass bowls should expect some serious kickback from the brass bowl union.
    Steupsss…. We deserve exactly what we are about to get….

  14. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Hants | October 29, 2014 at 10:24 PM “Do they teach conflict resolution to anybody in babadus ?”

    Hants you don’t know some ‘o de sh!t disturbers we have ’bout here in Barbados..u tink dem easy?

    These people don’y mind a riot…and they just love a war.

  15. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Dear Uncle Fruendel:

    Looka yah got phase 3 pun ya hands.

    LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  16. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    The perennial scapegoat or the incorrigible oaf?

  17. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    the incorrigible oaf …

  18. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    BAF

    I suspect you’re right. And yet…….

  19. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Time to give Broomes a sweetheart deal so he can “pursue other interest “.

  20. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Trouble at Alexandra; trouble at Parkinson, what do these two have in common? Broomes!!! All these schools in Barbados but one name is forever cropping up at the centre of every dispute.

    From what I’ve heard the man is a first class jackass, the Gov’t should have bitten the bullet after the Alexandra fiasco and paid him to stay home until he reached retirement age.

  21. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    This is what happens when politicians interfere in the recruitment of public servants

  22. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    Sargeant | October 30, 2014 at 12:11 AM |

    You mean similar to what they did to CoP Dottin?

  23. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @Miller
    Dottin was in a very sensitive job, I don’t claim to know the facts but there was no comparative position that he could be placed if he lost the confidence of the Gov’t.

    Broomes on the other hand was given a lateral transfer and the chance for a fresh start, but Broomes being Broomes couldn’t help but engage the teachers at his new school in battle.

    Sadly yuh can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

  24. David Avatar
    David

    Can anyone challenge what Broomes stated publicly about the performance of Parkinson and the fact the school is not on the bottom of the pile? What does it say about the system and the teachers and principals. This is where the focus ought to be.

  25. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    There is simple solution to all of this then spending $600,000 to bunch of goonies. The solution is for the lazy ass ministry of education to get up off their high paid butts and review the management strategies of Broom that are deemed unacceptable in the eyes of other teachers. Whilst at it, that the lazy ass ministry also establish a review system that would place highly trained officers in various schools to review the teaching delivery process of many teachers in an attempt to ascertain the effectiveness of their teaching methodology. If found wanted that the lazy ass ministry establish a proper teaching regime that all teachers must follow and that any teachers who deviate without good reason be subjected to disciplinary action on the educational regulations. Finally that the lay ass ministry of education should review such a regime for tweaking every year or as often as is deemed necessary.

  26. David Avatar
    David

    @SSS

    The bottomline is this: the school system is not performing to par with hundreds of children not receiving certificates each year. If Broomes is trying to buck the system by putting fire under a lethargic teaching service would he not stand out like the proverbial sore thumb? This reasoning does not absolve him from his sins.

  27. Answer Avatar
    Answer

    How come teacher unions don’t hold meeting with their members on weeekends?
    Every frigging body in Barbados like to get something for free, even if its a day off with pay. The teachers should teach the children and STOP playing rashole games with their education.

    And we wonder why Barbados is churning loads of ignorant children each and every year.

  28. David Avatar
    David

    It is about a union and or the employees flexing their muscle.

  29. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Sargeant October 30, 2014 at 12:11 AM ” the Gov’t should have bitten the bullet after the Alexandra fiasco and paid him to stay home until he reached retirement age.”

    Word on the street is that Broomes’ old man died and left him with many hundreds of thousands of dollars which he had won on the lotto. So unlike most civil servants Broomsie is lucky enough not to have to live from paycheck to paycheck, so his employer can’t hold the threat of impoverishment over his head..the money does not matter to Broomsie.

  30. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    And he can afford the cost of legal representation to fight the government and the teacher’s unions…so wha’ to do?

  31. Nostradamus Avatar
    Nostradamus

    @Answer | October 30, 2014 at 6:36 AM |
    “How come teacher unions don’t hold meeting with their members on weeekends?”

    And they just finished having a day off for “Teacher’s Professional Day!”

  32. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Nostradamus
    …and how about the rain threat day?

  33. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David
    Thank you for bringing some balance to the topic.

    Can’t believe that a set of bloggers who have spent the last ten years lambasting our pissy education system can now be claiming not to understand how a man that comes around talking shiite about “children getting a better break,” about “improving examination results”, and about “improving the status of the school” will be under attack from the status quo…
    …well Bushie can understand Sargeant……. After all he is just an NCO who lives oceans away, admits that he dont know one shiite about the situation and yet he is barking orders….but some NCO are like that…

    Obviously if the inmates are running the asylum any sane suggestions become targets for the mob…

    is this not why Caswell always ends up fired, in court, in the papers and broke – where ever he has worked in our crooked, bribe-driven system?

    is this not why GP is in exile – despite all his knowledge?

    is it not why Bush Tea will always be a bushman with a whacker instead of minister of any shiite bout here?

    wuh shiite man, JESUS himself come bout here healing people , feeding them and even making wine fuh dem …. while bringing the greatest news even delivered to mankind ….. and what did the SAME brass bowls that he came to do….?
    …not choose to have his tail crucified …..INSTEAD of a common no-good thief?

    The Principals we should focus on are the ones who get NO pushback, no complaints, no trouble …..
    THOSE are the useless BBs who are maintaining the shitty wasteful system we have been complaining about….
    Them and the jackasses at the Ministry… and of course the top one who seems to be locked in his bedroom sleeping….

  34. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    David…on JB bringing fire….

    And that is precisely my “…as yet” to BAF. He then becomes an easy target for the third rate.

  35. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    David…sorry…that should be “my ‘and yet’”.

  36. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Broomes should be transferred to the Ministry of Education and given a mandate to develop his ideas into workable solutions for improving the performance of students.

    Clearly he is not capable of managing UNIONISED workers.

  37. David Avatar
    David

    We know change agents will face resistance and it becomes more difficult if the owner of the change (MOE) is resistant lol. Are we happy to promote a system where 50% of children fall through the cracks with one or less ‘certificate’? Has Broomes improve the overall performance of the school where he has been posted?

  38. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    @David

    The teaching system has been found wanting for some time now. My good friend Sandie has been lambasting the educational system for its lethargic programmes and laissez-faire approaches for years. I mean have anyone not notice the regularity by which tail wagging has taken prominence in Barbados. These days those in authority are hardly respected with the disgruntled quick to run to the shitety union or the press. No one seems to want to follow instructions from their superiors. Defiance seems to be the order of the day.

  39. David Avatar
    David

    @Ross

    For the sake of argument let us accept Broomes is wrong and should be disciplined. The inability or capability to deal with Broomes shows how ineffectual the supporting actors/agencies have been.

  40. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    When my daughter was at school she came home one day and said “Daddy…do you know what? My teacher chalked the word “boring” on the blackboard today. She wrote it as “boren”. At that point I removed her from that school. Is that the kind of thing JB faces?

  41. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    David what responsibility does the teachers take for improving the performance of the students in their class.

    Teachers get paid to teach and there is an expectation that their students will perform well.

    The Headmaster is not solely responsible for the failure of TEACHERS and STUDENTS at Parkinson.

    The bigger problem appears to be the failure to improve the system of education so that we get better results at all levels.

  42. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    Let the proof of Broom’s assumed counter productive management style be brought to the forefront for scrutiny and criticism. We have a developing mindset in BIM where most of the Toms, Dicks and Harrys with education feel the need to make a stance or challenge any perceive injustices with impunity and contempt. Sometimes the stances are base on innuendo and the collusion tactics of the disgruntle to harness support. So I say prove Broom’s wrong and investigate thoroughly the teachers’ claims.

  43. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    And then again, one day my son came home and said he’d been doing ‘slavery’ in history. I looked at the dictation he’d been given. It was straight from Beckles’ ‘History of Barbados’ without acknowledgement. Is that what JB faces?

    Now I’m sure other concerned parents have similar anecdotes. Of JB I have no idea. But of our system of education…well now.

  44. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    David

    Yes…..but I don’t think it’s as easy as you suppose. Imagine A has been put in place by B. A turns out, according to x, to be a dolt. x complains to B. B dislikes x and realizes that by sniping at A he demonstrates his own failure in appointing him. B shields himself by allowing A to marginalize x – in short, the human condition.

  45. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    A solution to the performance at Parkinson is to improve the Primary schools so that Parkinson gets better prepared students.

  46. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    Getting quality students is desirable but it does not address poor management practice which includes adequate performance management system.

  47. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    I agree David but I am at a lost as to why after all these years we still can’t have good “management” of the Education system in Barbados.

  48. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Hants

    I shall endeavor to answer your question to the best of my knowledge Hants. The system of academics there in Barbados has produced the type of individual, who is quite capable of memorizing data, but is unable to apply it in a critical sense to a real world situation. Take for example your paper- tiger Bush Tea, he is a prime example of an individual who has been taught to think in confined terms. The brother hasn’t the intellectual infrastructure to think beyond a certain scope, and when he tries, he often seem to confront an explanatory threshold. And that is due in part to the limits of his comprehension, which prevents him from grasping certain concepts because the memory has been stretched through the application of Critical thinking. I hope I have answered your question Hants.

  49. David Avatar
    David

    Ignorance knows no bounds.

  50. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    Barbados does not have an ‘Education System’

    They still have in place what was left by British Colonial Masters.

    An ‘Education System’ please note the British did away with for their own children well over 40 years ago.

    What we have in Barbados is a bunch of FAT CATS in the Ministry of Education who just turn up each day sucking “EASY MONEY” from the Barbadian tax payers along with a lot of so called qualified teachers.

    The MOE and Principals like their fancy titles and status whilst Barbados has for many years children keep failing and being put in a box and labelled as failures for well over 60%.

    Most children don’t do well because of the Educational System which is broken and backward thinking starting from Primary schools level..

    I can never understand howt children should be called ‘brighter’ given scholarships and awards than the other because they can can remember and regurgitate better than others.

    I would know because I went to one of the ‘older’ grammar schools and have studied and completed to a Masters Degree level.

    I have two children currently in the system and can see first hand how backward it currently us and they are going to so called top secondary schools.

    I also have a daughter who went to a top local school who just completed a Masters Degree at Cambridge University in England.

    The commonality in the three of them is that we spent a lot of extra money on outside tuition from primary school and ourselves played a role in monitoring and helping them with the education.

    My wife is a university graduate from a British University.

    I have literally fought with both teachers and principals locally, only because of wanting the best for my children especially at the primary school level and being constantly disrespected.

    I have even gone as far as changing the last two when they were in primary schools to a different school as the Principal seemed not to like being challenged by any parent when things were wrong and felt she could speak to them in any manner.

    Now if this could happen in my case who have financial resources and knowledge; what really happens to most children and parents locally who chooses to challenge the system.

    The management system is broken from the top hence why at the bottom most of the teachers and others in administration could care less about real education which is more than regurgitation.

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