EDUCATION IS TOO important to our country to have the current level of unrest and conflict currently being portrayed in public. While it is evident that school and children have changed significantly, we need to also recognise that the same can be said about teachers and teaching.
In the current scenarios, most persons will agree that the students were rude and some kind of punishment was required. However, as adults we must raise the bar and in so doing, remain fair, respectful and above all, be professional. Teachers must therefore call upon their training and management skills and focus their efforts on outing fires and avoid any action that would escalate them.
Remain in control, class room brawls with teacher and student must be stamped out from early.
Looking on, one cannot help but get the impression that the head of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union enjoys shouting across at the Ministry of Education, her employer, a strategy which is now being adopted by the head of the BUT.
What kind of example is being set to fellow union members, who will no doubt carry the same behaviour to the staffroom and the classroom?
Thank God all teachers are not the same, but a few have lost their way.
Mr Minister, conflict resolution training is urgently required for all teachers. May I suggest that the expenses currently incurred for leave passages be redirected to this critical requirement.
– PATRICIA SPRINGER
