ALEXANDRA SCHOOL?principal Jeff Broomes says tardy teachers should leave the education system instead of compromising the future of their charges.
He told a prize-giving ceremony at the St Peter school Friday that if he had to operate below par, he would leave the teaching service.
During the ceremony at which students were rewarded for their outstanding work, the principal spoke of difficulties students encountered because of alleged tardiness by some teachers.
“These children at the onset of their CXC [Caribbean Examinations Council] programmes were compromised in this manner,” he charged. “It was wrong; they did not deserve that.
Our school does not stand for that, and our profession is not about that.
“As an educator and I saw it possible for me to operate in this way, I would take it as a clear sign that I should leave the profession, and leave I would,” he said.
Teaching at the school was disrupted at the end of 2009 and early last year when the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union staged industrial action, with about two dozen teachers withdrawing their services.
Broomes said the students lost a number of teaching hours as a result.
“This they [students] recognized and structured a plan of personal responsibility to supplement the efforts of many of their class teachers. Such initiative earned my admiration and respect but, even more importantly, it resulted in this graduation class attaining the second best overall CXC results in the past five years.” (JS)