ALEXANDRA SCHOOL cannot be allowed to continue to fall to folly.
Head of the English Department at the St Peter school, Leslie Lett, used the excerpt from Shakespeare’s King Lear play to describe the existing situation under principal Jeff Broomes.
“In our school, I am convinced, that power has fallen to folly, and therefore it is our duty to speak plainly and act decisively,” he stated.
Lett was among the 30 members of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) who withdrew labour yesterday for the third consecutive year at the start of the Hilary term, to meet at the union’s headquarters to air ongoing grievances with Broomes which date back in some cases to 2002.
Noting that the teachers were also parents and understood the stress and inconvenience of having to find accommodation for their children when school was disrupted, Lett said they would not withdraw labour without just cause.
“What I want parents to know is that it is even more undesirable, it is even more inconvenient, it is even more stressful to have any child be sent to any school in Barbados under any principal, who fosters and festers to a great extent an atmosphere, environment that is not conducive to effective teaching or effective learning,” he said to loud thumps and applause from his colleagues.
Not only do they love to teach, but Lett said they felt a comparable sense of achievement to parents when their students excel.
Distinction
Additionally, Lett said a lot of the teachers had served with distinction at the school and were decorated at the community and the national levels.
“We have for too long allowed other people to distort our narrative.
It is time now that we tell our story,” he said, adding that Broomes’ style of management defied every established precept of leadership.
The BSTU is canvassing members at other schools to mobilise them to join in the action, if the Ministry of Education does not heed its call for the separation of Broomes from the St Peter institution.
For those who might be hesitant to be in solidarity, Lett said the situation transcended Alexandra and would pop up at other schools.
“We are fighting for respect for all teachers. We are standing up for honesty and full disclosure in principal/ staff relationships.
“We are standing up for civility in professional interests . . . . We even standing up for the respect of the office of principalship,” he said passionately.
Further to that, Lett told the story of Pastor Martin Niemoeller of Nazi Germany who did not speak up when they came for the communists, the trade unionists, nor the Jews and had no one left to speak when they came for him.
The Alexandra teachers are expected to report to the BSTU’s 8th Avenue, Belleville headquarters again today. (YB)
