The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister Chester Cooper yesterday defended the government’s push to recruit potentially hundreds of foreign teachers, insisting Bahamian educators will be given first claim on vacancies as the administration moves to confront a shortage unions have described as urgent.

Mr Cooper, who recently assumed responsibility for the Ministry of Education, said overseas teachers have worked in Bahamian classrooms for decades and rejected suggestions that international recruitment represented a radical departure from established practice.

“This concept that there’s something wrong with bringing foreign teachers is really foreign to me,” he said. “Since as a child 40 years ago I recall having teachers from Nigeria, Jamaica, Barbados, USA, Scotland, UK, Canada, so this is not a new concept for the schools in the Bahamas.”

The Ministry of Education announced on Monday that it had welcomed Ghana’s offer to assist with recruiting up to 300 teachers as the government scrambles to fill vacancies across the country.

The ministry also formed a multi-agency task force to coordinate the recruitment drive.

The announcement immediately drew fire from Bahamas Union of Teachers president Belinda Wilson, who said the union had not been consulted and questioned why the government was advancing plans to recruit overseas while negotiations for a new industrial agreement remained unresolved.

She also demanded clarity on the qualifications, vetting, benefits and placement of the proposed recruits.

Mr Cooper said the task force’s first priority would be to identify every qualified Bahamian willing to enter or return to the classroom.

That search will include retired teachers, educators whose contracts have ended and others who may be prepared to rejoin the public school system.

Bahamian teachers, he said, will be considered before foreign recruits.

Mr Cooper said he entered the ministry determined to tackle a shortage that both the BUT and the Bahamas Educators, Counsellors and Allied Workers Union identified as one of the most pressing problems facing the education system.

“We are focused on solutions, we are focused on results, we are focused on supporting Bahamian teachers,” he said.

Mr Cooper said the government has already concluded an industrial agreement with BECAWU and is close to completing negotiations with the BUT.

“We’ve already agreed for the most part financial terms of pay, etc. with the BUT, and that negotiation is progressing,” he said. “Sometime last week, in fact, we reached out to the BUT to continue those discussions.”

He said the administration believes it is broadly aligned with the union on the outstanding negotiations and will continue working with education stakeholders to confront the system’s fundamental problems.

Mr Cooper said foreign teachers would be recruited through the government’s standard process and hired under standard contracts.

They would receive benefits comparable to those offered to Bahamian teachers and remain in the system for as long as their services are needed.

He described the teacher shortage as a decades-old problem that the ministry would tackle methodically, while acknowledging the urgency of placing qualified teachers in classrooms.

“I assure Bahamian people that the vetting process is going to be robust,” he said. “We are going to ensure that any teacher we hire is qualified in terms of their credentials, but also in terms of their character. They will go through the full vetting process of the Bahamas police force, Interpol, Public Service Commission, and Department of Labor, etc. We’re not cutting corners, but we recognize the urgency of the issue.”

Mr Cooper also said the ministry was pressing ahead with school repairs before the new academic year begins.

Contracts have been issued for work at schools in New Providence, Grand Bahama and most Family Islands as the government races to have campuses ready when students return in September.