MINISTER OF EDUCATION Ronald Jones yesterday said he was “really shocked” by the Barbados Union of Teachers’ (BUT) call for a meeting last Friday with an ultimatum.
Furthermore, he told the media during a Press conference at the ministry’s Elsie Payne Complex that neither he, Parliamentary Secretary Senator Harry Husbands, or other top officials in the ministry had any idea what prompted the call, given the fact that they had met with all the unions except the Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools in the past two months on some of the same matters being raised.
He added he had not received another letter from the BUT asking for another meeting yesterday.
Expressing dismay over the fact that the correspondence between himself and the BUT had been shared, Jones, a former BUT president, stressed it was not the “done thing”.
“I have no difficulty in meeting with teachers in Barbados. I have no difficulty in sharing general broad policy ideas that we are pursuing and that makes up part and parcel of teachers’ functions [and responsibilities] and those things that would impact upon them.
“What is critical, though, is that unions and this ministry have established over time an unwritten protocol for the treatment of all kinds of matters, and we don’t first go to the media but we first communicate to those parties that we want to meet and to have these things discussed.” (GBM)
