Pres principal slams teacher absenteeism

THE Principal of a Chaguanas school, has hit out at high levels of absenteeism by school teachers in the country’s schools. Presentation College (Chaguanas) principal Simon Rostant chastised teachers for the high absenteeism rate saying, “some of them (teachers) draw a salary under false pretences.” Rostant made the stinging remarks while delivering an address at the school’s annual Prize Distribution function held in the auditorium before a large crowd which included Archbishop of Port-of-Spain His Grace Archbishop Edward Gilbert. “We have degenerated to the point where teachers are now monitored by students with resepct to regularity and punctuality,” Rostant said. “Students left without supervision will always be tempted to get into problems,” he added. He then revealed statistics at his school with respect to class periods in which students were left without teacher supervision. The statistics according to Rostant, showed that nine out of 24 class periods, 12 out of 40; five out of 40 and 12 out of 32 periods were left without a teacher. “This is simply not good enough. To walk down the corridor and see only one teacher in a class is inexcusable, especially when statistics show repetition on the part of some teachers,” Rostant said.

Rostant also took a swipe at teachers who “seemingly abandon their classes during the period when they are being paid to teach.” Rostant said the worst reputation a teacher could acquire was that of being a good “lessons” teacher while being a non-performer in the classroom. “We will not short-change our own children, so why short-change the childen of others?” Rostant asked. His Grace  Archbishop Edward Gilbert agreed with Rostant’s assertions and said the Roman Catholic Board of Education was not going to stand idly by and tolerate absenteeism of teachers in schools. Archbishop Gilbert said that after being in office for three years, “I always insist on high level performances from priests and from teachers in the field of education.” “I insist on it, so absenteeism will not be tolerated and we will work in full collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Prinicpals to eliminate it totally. The students’ welfare demands it,” Archbishop Gilbert said. The Archbishop said that the reputation of Presentation College “was a source of pride to the Catholic Church as the need for a holistic form of education is essential for contemporary issues in the society.”

He said the Church supported a document from the Ministry of Education sent to the IRO on “the values of education” and noted with concern, that many of the challenges in the nation, the region and the world, were “flowing from a lack of values.” The College did exceptionally well in cricket, football, badminton and the Cadets for 2003 and gained six National scholarships. Scholarship winners from that school included Videsh Seereeram, (Open Science); Christopher Cassim, Ronnie Ameerali, Ravi Ramlal, Vishal Bahall, and Nafeez Mohammed. The Principal’s Prize went to Videsh Seereeram while the student who came first in the Ordinary Level examination was Gervais Rocke, with a total of seven distinctions. Cricketer of the Year was TT Under 19 Captain Dinesh Ramdin, and the footballer of the year was Kevon Laloo.