Acting appts of Principals and v-p’s to be settled

For several months the Primary Schools’ Principals’ Association (PSPA) has been expressing concern about the delay in making the appointments permanent.

President of the PSPA, Patricia Waldron-Adams told Newsday 60-65 percent of the principals and vice principals in the system were acting. She said in the Port-of-Spain division alone, out of the 80 primary schools, over 33 had acting principals and vice principals.

Yesterday the Association met with the TSC to discuss several issues, after which Waldron-Adams expressed optimism about seeing improvements.

She told Newsday, she felt the TSC was now aware of the situation and was seeing the importance of dealing with the problem. She felt the TSC with its new chairman, Hyacinth Guy, will be proactive, since indications were given about establishing selection centres to speed up the interviewing process.

"We feel the backlog will be dealt with."

On the issue of discipline, Waldron-Adams said they have been assured that the matter was being addressed. As for the formulation of a seniority list, she said the teaching service regulations had to be amended to reflect changes in the education system.

She said the matter has to be addressed at the level of the Ministry of Education.

Waldron-Adams added that her Association felt "the Commission gave us a genuine listening ear and they recognise the issues are important."

She said the meeting lasted for over two hours, in which the Association sought clarification and established links for communication, since the Commission’s board is fairly new.

On the issue of funding for primary schools, Waldron-Adams said proposals were sent to the Ministry on Monday. The categories which needed critical funding as outlined by the Association includes service, minor repairs, rapid response and aesthetics, sports and cultural.

Waldron-Adams explained that the schools requested the ministry set aside money for the schools to deal with telephone bills, servicing of photocopiers and minor repairs.

She said in terms of rapid response, monies were needed for emergencies, like minor problems with the sewer system. She said sometimes because the schools wait on the ministry for funds to deal with such problems, the matter is left unattended and would result in children having to stay home for weeks. Waldron-Adams said the ministry also had to acknowledge that to host sporting and cultural events, money was required to rent venues if the schools could not facilitate the event. She said raising funds by the schools’ staff has been taking up too much time.

She said if teachers are to concentrate on delivering quality education, then the ministry has to provide funding.