At long last, the strike at the Alexandra School has been brought to an end!
After 20 gruelling calendar days and 15 lost class days, teachers are set to return to school tomorrow, much to the relief of over 800 students, if not principal Jeff Broomes.
We thank Prime Minister Freundel Stuart for using his good offices to make this happen.
We also agree with him that the dispute should not have been allowed to drag on for so long.
But rather than blame any “interlopers” for turning this issue into a “circus”, we, like the Prime Minister, are less than impressed that the Minister of Education and his staff hitherto had not proceeded with “all the things that needed to be done”, based on the recommendations of an Independent Institutional Inspection Report, which was reportedly in their possession since May 2011.
That the Prime Minister now has to follow this matter “day-by-day” rather than attend to other pressing issues of state is a crying shame.
We, however, join him in commending the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) and its leadership for their maturity, insight and cooperation in bringing us to Stage 1 of the corrective process and for agreeing that “every minute” of lost time will be returned to the students.
But the big question is, what then?
It is all well and good to order “an uneventful” and “smooth re-entry” for the striking teachers, but it’s quite another to achieve such, given what in the Prime Minister’s own estimation is an “unstable and very volatile” situation at the St Peter school.
After all, we are not dealing with robots, but with real people, with real blood running through their veins and with real feelings.
We therefore eagerly anticipate Stage 2 of the Stuart Corrective Remedy for Alexandra in keeping with his hope of securing a “genuine, enduring normalcy”.
Given the obvious tensions between teachers and principal, surely no one ever expected that it would be “an abracadabra” situation or indeed that any magic wand could be used to effect an immediate settlement.
We caution, therefore, that no amount of plaster can permanently cover up this festering sore.
So far, the Prime Minister has indicated that he intends to deal with this matter with “dispatch”, even though it may take him weeks or months even.
We will continue to hold his feet to the fire until this issue is terminus ad quem.
