Submitted by Anthony Davis
“Teachers at Parkinson Memorial Secondary are expected to go on the picket line tomorrow morning to protest principal Jeff Broomes’ failure to take disciplinary action against students who took knives and other weapons to school.” – Barbados Today 9 Feb 2015. It is incomprehensible to me why the teachers unions are always ready to strike. Is it because about twelve weeks’ vacation – plus about an additional three days as “Teachers’ days” – are not enough?
I don’t see any other profession getting extra days every three months, so why should teachers? The most of the tax payers who pay them, and whose scions they are supposed to teach, do not even get a quarter of the time off for vacation. They seem to have utter contempt for the parents/guardians of their charges, and by extension the students. They already have their education – paid for by the said people whose children they seem bent on depriving of theirs.
Mr. Broomes is concerned that the action may “leave too many children unsupervised”, but they are not the least bit concerned. Barbados must top the list for teacher strikes in the Caribbean – if not worldwide. This situation comes again during the time when students are preparing for exams. Will the BUT and its cohorts be able to alleviate the additional stress being placed on the tax payers who pay them, and on their scions/wards? Will the BUT help pay for the extra lessons for which the parents/guardians will have to pay? I doubt it.
What is the other reason for the strike?
Is that just a red herring for the strike?
I don’t know why so many things in this country are being done covertly!
On the other hand, weapons of any kind do not belong on a school compound, and those who are found with them should be punished. However, it is no excuse for striking if the students were not punished because there are so many things that go unpunished in this country, and no one goes on strike because people are not punished for them. Last year the BSTU and its members played the grand old duke of York and his men, so it seems to be your turn this year. It seems to be nothing but callousness on the part of the teachers and their unions!
For me our children are of paramount importance as they are the most vulnerable in our society, and I have very little sympathy for anyone who wants to deprive them of their education – no matter for what reason. They are an integral part of our society, and some of them are deviant like some adults, so that is no reason to put all of them in the same basket and put stumbling blocks in their way. They are already being deprived of tertiary education by this “people-centred” Government, and now you want to deprive them of their secondary one.
You must remember that you should not put stumbling blocks in children’s way!
I think that teachers should take more responsibility for those whom they are supposed to inculcate with what is set out in the curriculum. Why are you always attacking Mr. Broomes? He seems to be running his school with a tight rein, because before he was appointed principal of the Parkinson Memorial School one used to see many Parkinson students lingering in the Fairchild St. Bus Terminal, at bus stops, and elsewhere. Nowadays that is in the past, so he must be doing something right – perhaps more than some of you who keep haranguing him.
“Do good, reap good; do evil, reap evil.” Chinese Proverb
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