With schools due to reopen in two weeks, the Barbados Union of Teachers is awaiting the Ministry of Education Transformation’s response to proposed changes to school assistants’ hours to support the breakfast programme, which takes effect when the term starts on September 7.
BUT president Rudy Lovell told Barbados TODAY the union has no outstanding concerns about the breakfast programme itself but insisted that teachers will not be involved, while remaining cautiously optimistic that schools will be ready for the new term.
“We were negotiating with the ministry regarding the school assistants who we represent, who were earmarked to be part of the breakfast programme but other than that, in terms of the breakfast programme, we had a meeting with the ministry and we have discuss any concerns that we had at the time.
“We have been given assurance that the breakfast programme will not include teachers and that in no way teachers will be asked to participate in the programme apart from being there to supervise students, so essentially the BUT is satisfied that the ministry has done what is necessary to ensure the breakfast programme is successful and that all members will not be disadvantaged in any way.”
General Secretary Gilbert Carmichael said the ministry was seeking to adjust the hours of school assistants: “In order to accommodate their assistance in the supervision of the breakfast programme, we met with our school assistants and we met with the ministry and we’ve pretty much been able to at this juncture, we’re gonna get a final update in short order as to what is the outcome, but as an issue also was put on the table, so we’re just waiting for that to be responded to in by way of letter.”
Lovell said that while a definitive time had not been given for breakfast, the union was told it would be served well before classes began and would not disrupt teaching and learning.
As for schools’ readiness when teachers returned on Tuesday for planning week, he said the union remained cautiously optimistic.
“Planning week starts on Tuesday, so planning week is next week, Tuesday to Friday, and then students return on Monday, the 7th. At this point we are cautious, cautiously optimistic that the maintenance programme would be fully complete.”
The union had not received direct updates from the ministry but would assess the situation next week when teachers returned to schools, Lovell added.
“We will start the process of visiting those schools that were part of the summer maintenance programme and we will make an assessment in terms of readiness and then we will report to the ministry our concerns.”
He added: “The schools should be ready for teachers because school is just not with students and if next week is planning week, school should be ready for teachers next week; so once teachers return on Tuesday, we’ll be out in the field and anybody who goes to school and recognise that it’s not finished or it’s not safe for inhabitation, we will be sure to report that to the ministry so that we can have it sorted ahead of the official start of the school term.”
(LG)
