Servol head up in arms over ministry’s ‘hijack’

The assurance was in response to anger and betrayal expressed by Servol chairman Fr Gerry Pantin over a reported secret meeting between ministry officials and teachers at the centres.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony on Wednesday, Pantin accused ministry officials of attempting to hijack the successful pre-school programme. He said the officials told teachers of 40 centres last week that half of the pre-schools would be removed from the jurisdiction of Servol, and Servol’s field officers will not be allowed to supervise the centres in the future. Pantin told Newsday that Servol was never informed of the meeting, but he explained that the action was obviously part of a "devious plan" by the ministry, especially since he had been trying to meet with Education Minister Hazel Manning for the last three months to discuss the delay in paying increased salaries to teachers.

Pantin said he could not understand how the minister was unable to give him ten minutes of her time. He said when he eventually met with her for five minutes, after camping at her office for three hours, she told him "she was not aware of the problem." He said, "suspicion will be raised when you’re being blanked, when there has been total silence you will suspect devious plans are afoot."

Pantin said everything fell into place when he learnt of the secret meeting. He said at the meeting, the teachers were also promised that the increased salaries of $2,000 would be paid by the end of the month, with the possibility of salaries being increased to $3,000 in the Budget later this month.

Pantin said the National Council for Early Childhood Education, which was recently established and chaired by Carol Logie and includes 30 other persons, was not told or consulted about the meeting. "This is the way that the present administration treats with an organisation which has been single-handedly responsible for the development of high-quality early childhood care and education, and the saddest thing of all was the cowardly way in which it was done."

Pantin said many of the teachers were in tears over the development.

He questioned the move saying, "Is it that the formal system of education is in such total disarray that the ministry wants to hijack a successful project to point to something positive in the present administration?"

He added it was most distressing to know that the entire programme would fall apart because civil servants would be in charge.

Pantin says he is not comforted by the ministry’s assurance, but he will "wait to see if it is genuine or if it is merely to keep the peace." He added that "the PNM has never been interested in early childhood education," and it was the NAR who started the process in 1987 when it approached Servol.