THIS TOWN HALL meeting didn’t attract the town.
And president of the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU), Mary Redman, wasn’t happy about it.
The outspoken Redman didn’t mince her words at the Ellerslie School this evening, when faced with an extremely small turn-out at a town hall meeting which was arranged so parents could air their views about why BSTU members have chosen not to mark School Based Assessments (SBA).
Redman had been prepared to discuss the challenges teachers faced within the schools regarding the SBAs, but was forced to wait for more than half an hour after the scheduled 3:30 p.m. start before convening the highly publicised town hall meeting.
“The Barbadian public is very quick to vilify teachers and when opportunities like this are provided to come and hear for themselves. Where are they?” Redman declared about the small turn-out.
“This is the second time we have attempted as union to hold a meeting of this type so we can engage the public, engage the parents so they can seek clarification and understand why and yet again we have a very, very poor turn-out of parents. The majority (of people) here are (BSTU) members. About 15 teachers are here to interface with parents to provide information to clarify and where are the parents?” (HLE)