Ministry, TTUTA not serious

THE EDITOR: Nearly every day one reads about violence and indiscipline in schools and to me, the Minister of Education and TTUTA president do not know how to handle it because they have not the slightest idea of the problems at these secondary schools. The last time they probably spent a few days at a secondary school was over 30 years ago when they were students, or were caring parents who performed their duties well. One cannot sit in an office away from a school and make decisions, it should come from the principals, they should recommend what they need because they have the problems.

Hiring Special Reserve police officers and wardens to watch the fence will never solve the problem. One has to start from the classroom whereby the school’s population is divided into small grounds of around 30 students. In each classroom, there will be students, probably one or two that may be indisciplined. So if the subject teacher, form teacher, Head of Department, Dean and a parent should sit and talk with these students and encourage them to try and pursue an education, that student may try to learn, seeing the love and attention he/she is receiving. Most of these students are from broken homes and probably did not get the love and guidance from their parents. In the year 2001, when I saw the advertisement for Deans and Heads of Departments at schools, I felt happy because I thought the Ministry of Education was heading in the right direction, because when schools have their Deans and Heads of Departments assisting with discipline, they can now monitor the academic performances and indiscipline of students, supervise the activities of form teachers, ensuring the preparation and compilation of students records, and also that students keep classrooms orderly and in sanitary conditions.

In the year 2002, teachers were interviewed for the posts and up to now, nearly two years later, no one has been appointed. This shows that the Ministry of Education and the Teaching Service Commission are not serious about solving this problem. Even TTUTA is silent about it. One wonders if the Union really cares about the teachers because we were told that Mr Trevor Oliver stopped the remainder of the interviews, but one cannot understand why because it is something positive the Ministry of Education is doing for the education system. One wonders who is in charge of the Ministry of Education. All the teachers are in support of the Deans and Heads of Departments in schools and are threatening to resign from TTUTA because it seems as though Mr Oliver is enjoying what is happening in schools so he can make his appearance on television.

The teachers are fed up with him because he is making our work difficult. We need the Heads of Departments and Deans to support the teachers in their time of difficulty. They are more effective than police officers and wardens. Seeing that Mr Oliver never taught at a secondary school he does not know what it is like here, So we are appealing to the Minister of Education to give us our Heads of Departments and Deans which will help solve the problems at the schools and will make the teachers’ job a little easier. We know what we need to get the job done. We are in the heat of things.

NOEL JONES
Teacher III
California