Education Minister needs to rethink strategy to reopen schools: DLP

Barbados: "Insulting and almost offensive!" That is how the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) described recent comments from Education Minister Santia Bradshaw, during what the party called another long and exhausting press briefing from the Mia Mottley administration.

The DLP claimed that the minister insinuated teachers were not working for the last year and needed to get back to the classroom. The party refuted any such suggestion and said it was ridiculous to compare teachers, cashiers, or any other profession, maintaining that each has its own realities and challenges.

While agreeing that schools needed to reopen, particularly for those due to take exams, they said it should begin with small and practical steps and after consultation with teachers via their trade unions.

The DLP cautioned the ministry not to become complacent because of a few medical successes and risk the health and safety of thousands of teachers and students. The DLP said schools are potential super spreaders, with over 200 people gathered in several limited spaces, for 5- 6 hours at a time.

On behalf of the children of Barbados, their parents and the hardworking educators and their support staff, the DLP asked that the following concerns be openly addressed:

1. When the students return to school, will there be a dedicated school bus system with monitors onboard to ensure students are transported to and from home as swiftly and safely as possible?

2. Has any thought been given to the day-to-day operations of some of these protocols? A school environment is unlike any other work situation. How will the school monitors be further utilised to enforce the protective protocols?

3. Reference is constantly being made to research and surveys among Barbadian teachers which advise the minister's positions. Can these studies and research findings be made public for the sake of transparency? Who commissioned them? Where are the results? Did teachers even know that their feedback would be used in this way?

4. Has the minister of education replaced the teacher trade unions? What percentage of teachers was Minister Bradshaw referring to, who messaged her privately to share concerns? Is this the new accepted channel of correspondence for the Ministry? Is her sample comparable to the over 500 teachers who met in a recent online union meeting giving their union a resounding mandate to share their views with the same Minister? Why is the word coming from this 500 plus body and others conflicting with the Minister's private submissions and why is the latter being given precedence?

5. When will the Ministry of Education speak in definite terms and give details on term three dates - dates for common entrance; a date for the end of term; a date for others to be phased in and plans for going forward? Will teachers have another shortened summer vacation? Has the ministry of education completed the gap with students not having access to devices, wi-fi, and electricity? With schools not physically opened since December has the capacity of the schools been improved to house students with adequate spacing protocols. Will the ministry again pass the buck on to our already stressed Principals and their management teams to make decisions that should be filtering down from the ministry to show robust leadership amid the pandemic?

6. Are we going to hear more concrete information on the realities of Covid-19 for school-aged children since they cannot receive the vaccine and are typically not tested? What does the World Health Organization (WHO) say? What does the Center for Disease Control say? Do we just take the word of the Minister of Education that all the risks are being managed??

As we approach the most solemn time in our calendar, we invite the Prime Minister to have some solemn reflection. A reflection which we are sure will indicate that her seeming protege is out of her depth in the Ministry of Education and that better needs to be done for parents, the public, and generations of Barbadians to come.