BUT president Belinda Wilson.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
BELINDA Wilson is celebrating yet another re-election victory as president of the Bahamas Union of Teachers after elections were held this week.
Official results from the election had not been released at press time on Friday, but Mrs Wilson told The Tribune that unofficial results indicate she has won yet another term.
“I win big big big. Most of my team win," she said.
BUT elections are held every two years. Mrs Wilson was first elected president in 2008 when she defeated her opponent by 606 votes in the last election. Her tenure has been rocked by several suspensions. She was last suspended in September 2018.
She told The Tribune her focus is now on negotiating a new industrial agreement for teachers.
“We gave the government a proposal, they gave us a counter-proposal, we now gon’ have our fourth session next week and we will defend our position. So far the talks have been going slow, but steady. We put forth a proposal for a salary increase and we expect to get a salary increase, but we’re nowhere near that right now.”
Teachers had their last salary increase "a couple years ago in the previous agreement", Mrs Wilson said.
She said about winning: “I feel very honoured and I’m glad the teachers supported the A team. We have no unofficial numbers, labour said they will have the results for us on Monday.”
Positions up for vote in the election included president, vice president, secretary general, assistant secretary general, treasurer, assistant treasurer, trustee and executive member. Thirty-eight people had been vying fort the 13 positions.
Comments
geostorm 5 years, 5 months ago
Geez, this woman just won't go away! Can't stand these union leaders, mostly greedy, power hungry and unreasonable. I guess the country should sit back and expect more drama.
BMW 5 years, 5 months ago
No salary increase until we see better than a 46% rate of graduates.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 5 months ago
The mere fact that she was re-elected by the members of the Bahamas Union of Teachers speaks volumes about the pathetic quality of teachers in our public education system today. The vast majority of the children in our country don't stand a chance in hell of getting the education they deserve and need to lead a meaningful life.
And Minnis and his merry band of cabinet ministers will not pass legislation requiring that all teachers in the public education system possess certain minimum qualifications and be mandated to take and pass a series of written and oral examinations to evidence their ability to teach, as well as sufficient mastery of the subject material they would be teaching in the classroom, e.g. math, english, science, history, geography, etc. The primary reason our elected officials will do nothing to weed out the many unqualified teachers is that their very political survival depends on plenty of dumbed down voters who are willing to cast their vote come general election time for a buffoon politician.
Right now we have way to many U- grade teachers teaching D- grade students, many of whom cannot even obtain a most basic and already significantly watered down graduation diploma. Bout not too worry because Lloyd and Wilson will soon be proposing that the bar for obtaining a graduation diploma be significantly lowered so that more than 80% of the students in the public education system will at least end up with a piece of paper to show for all their years in school. Sadly though, when they seek employment they will be told that their diploma is really only good for one thing, i.e. wiping their can.
sheeprunner12 5 years, 5 months ago
Do you really believe all of those untruths you just wrote??? ....... The untrained, unqualified teachers are mostly in the private schools ....... Go do your research .......... Public school teachers are doing their jobs with one leg and one arm tied behind their backs by an unresponsive, obsolete, colonial system ........ Who's fault is that???????
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 5 months ago
Bahamians age 60 and older remember only too well the high standard of education they received in the Bahamas from well trained expat teachers. Poodling quickly had Loftus Roker (then Minister of Immigration) put an end to the excellent colonial system of education we inherited from our British masters in 1973. Out went most of the expat teachers and in came mainly unqualified Bahamian teachers. The standard of education for the vast majority of our country's children has been on a downward slide ever since. Blame whom you may, but most of us know first hand that we have way too many unqualified teachers in our failed public education system today. Illiterate teachers protected by a union do not belong in a classroom. Their illiteracy has less to do with them having an arm an a leg tied behind their back by government and more to do with their lack of a good basic education. The illerate and less well educated simply don't make good teachers, period.
sheeprunner12 5 years, 5 months ago
But, Mudda ........ before 1967, only 10% of kids took GCE, 20% finished high school (Grade 12) ....... and the Out Islands had NO high schools. How was that better than what we have now????????? ....... and most of the top private schools did not even accept black students, whether they had money to pay or not.
sheeprunner12 5 years, 5 months ago
Pindling is somewhere grinning right now. His 1967 Animal Farm experiment worked like a dream ......... For 25 years, he presided over his dumbed down fiefdom:
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING .................... he closed down the Old GHS .............. made all the new "secondary schools" clones of each other.......... encouraged all Bahamians to get an "office job" .................got rid of the competent white ex-pats in favour of black ex-pats........... closed down the SS Teachers' College ............. lowered the testing standards of BJC............... got rid of GCE O'Levels ............ created the seven-point pass scale for a bogus national exam (BGCSE) ............ encouraged social promotion from Grade 1 to 12 ............. invested very little in BTVI ................. Chose PEPs to run the schools & MOE ............... Kept COB on Government stipends ............. Funded private schools for his "friends, families & lovers" ............... Refused to seriously revamp the school year or curriculum ................. kept teachers pay scales one notch above the school secretaries .............. and NO PM or Minister of Education since Pindling has had the guts to fundamentally reform the educational system.
Hoda 5 years, 5 months ago
No education system is perfect.
Its interesting when these criticisms come from generations of Bahamians who believe that they shouldn't pay taxes.
Hundreds of Bahamians go to public school and make something out of their lives, some do not. Hundreds go to private school and make something of their lives, some do not.
Parents who do not raise their children and are not attentive to their education are to blame for the present state of things. Before you even determine that people are Uneducated, it is blaring obvious that they are rude and unmannered. These are signs that they are not raised well.
bogart 5 years, 5 months ago
SIGNIFICANT PART OF DA EDUCATION IS THE JUS PLAIN STUFFING OF SCHOOLS....BY POLITICANS......SIGNIFICANT PART OF CLASS IS WID HAITIAN....kids from a Haiti parents who from HAITI..DERE HAITI LITERACY RATE IS SOME 61%....many illegals LIKELY FROM URBAN AREAS..HAITI IMPOVERISHED AREAS....likely even less Haiti literacy no schoolin.....likely barely knowkedged in Bahamian english.literacy......Govt then jus hav dere kide...into a mandated free english settin.schooling...Haitian parents kids legal or illegal jus simply packed into govt schools to.....known fact....they hav to Haiti creole... background....into Bahamian english traditions..customs etcetc.........an almost 99.9% certain hav 61% Haiti literate parents cannot help herculean effort to learn assimilate demselves ....muchless kids......impoverished erryting cant help kids wid homework....critical part where Bahamian kids hav parents...families.. assimilation..to assist on english curriculum....and the Bahamian teachers. challenged edicatin 2 nations....one steadfast Haitian tied to more Haiti roots tryin to learn in limited class time....an Bahamian Bahamian students at not average speed below speed.at same time limited class time........there are of course exceptions....
OMG 5 years, 5 months ago
Several points to make. 1. Hatien students legally here often excel in the government high schools.. 2. When will some Bahamians stop blaming the British. God knows you have had 46 years to change things and do it your way. 3. The BGCSE exams are still moderated by Cambridge in the UK. How many years have to pass before the Bahamian examination department can get it right. 4. If the general public had been to one of the expensive, lengthy BUT annual general meetings they would be surprised at the stupid comments made. Example many teachers still ask why the can't get a refund on their medical insurance that they havn't used despite explanation after eplanation. 5. Finally Belinda's supporters seem to forget all the allegations against Belinda in the past and if Mrs Wilson fought for members facing unjust salary cuts or unjust terminations as hard as she founght for her own survival then she would be doing the job she has been elected for.
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