The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

MORE than a dozen instructors and support staff from the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute demonstrated outside the school yesterday demanding the “immediate termination” of the institution’s manager.

The teachers, who claim to have been “victimised”, threatened to withdraw their services if BTVI’s leadership is not changed.

Labour Minister Shane Gibson said he is aware of the “serious” concerns and told reporters that an investigation into the matter is underway.

Andrew Stuart, a lecturer at BTVI and spokesperson for the group, claimed that staff are not able to voice dissenting opinions to BTVI’s management without fear of being fired.

He claimed that some classes do not have teachers because instructors were allegedly transferred or fired in the middle of terms without a replacement.

“She needs to be gone, removed today,” Mr Stuart said, referring to the school’s manager.

“We have spoken to Labour Minister Shane Gibson and he said he will address our concerns. In fact, a special committee was formed, but we have not heard anything from them.”

Mr Gibson said he hopes the problems at BTVI are resolved quickly.

“I met with employees from BTVI who highlighted a number of very serious concerns that they have, that was several months ago,” Mr Gibson told reporters before heading into a Cabinet meeting. “BTVI, as you know now, is an autonomous organization where they have now been appointed their statutory board who is in charge of their own affairs.

“Those concerns, which we consider to be very serious, we have shared them with the chairman of the council, who I think is Mr Felix Stubbs, and he responded back to me that they were going to have a thorough investigation. I think they put Kevin Basden, general manager at BEC, who is the chairman of that particular committee to conduct an investigation and I have yet to hear the results of those investigation. But I can tell you there are some very serious issues there where persons’ careers are being threatened in our opinion unnecessarily and hopefully the council of BTVI will have those matters corrected as quickly as possible.”

Mr Stuart said the lecturers are prepared to walk off the job if something is not done immediately.

Calls to school officials were not returned up to press time.