The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

PRESIDENT of Bahamas Union of Teachers Belinda Wilson has expressed doubt that the Ministry of Education is ready for the 2020 school year.

She said after meeting with her team, there are too many unanswered questions.

She spoke to The Tribune a day after Minister of Education Jeff Lloyd announced public and private schools will now reopen on October 5 as opposed to September 21, with virtual learning only for the islands of New Providence, Abaco and Eleuthera at first.

Yesterday, Mrs Wilson said a draft plan from education officials left her executive team with many questions, adding she was blindsided by Monday’s announcement of an October 5 school start date.

“I had my full executive team, along with the management union, spend those two days looking at, and discussing, the Ministry of Education’s draft plan. There were so many questions we had that were not answered,” she said.

“So the opening for October 5, we were hearing for the first time, as everyone else was hearing it in the media from the minister’s presentation. The only time we heard of that date was when we learned that we would go virtual from September 21 and then October 5 shift to face-to-face. That was it.”

She is also upset that education officials plan to resume national exams this month, saying her union gave a viable alternative that would keep all stakeholders safe. She also gave examples of what other countries and entities were doing when faced with the same thing.

“The resumption of the BJC and the BGCSE examinations was not discussed with the union,” she said. “However, I believe that the ministry should cancel the sitting of the examination and use predicted or forecasted grades from the teachers for them to be able to award students their certificates in the various areas. This was recommended.

“The purpose of still holding the exams, the ministry claims, is for students to use for colleges and universities, but UB has waived those requirements for entrance and other universities have already started online. They also said it was to be used for scholarships, but there were no new scholarships awarded this year for international students. The UK has an education accreditation centre and they do the accreditation for national or exit examinations for 160 countries and 10,000 schools and they used the forecasted grades from the teachers.”

Mrs Wilson said with COVID-19 numbers increasing in the nation, she cannot understand why the Ministry of Education is prepared to risk the health of 15,500 students to take the national exams in rooms together when they are implementing virtual learning to prevent the same.

The subject of online learning and the state of affairs in Abaco hit a raw nerve for her.

“We are unclear about what learning management system they are going to be using,” she said. “What is the platform that is going to be used? We have no information or details on that. When school closed abruptly in March, teachers were using cell phones, laptops and iPads – whatever they found that was theirs, personally.

“Now I’ve not heard the minister say that teachers will receive a laptop or device for them to work from. And, if we say that we moving into the virtual or online learning, then the pens, pencils, paper and white boards are now obsolete. So if you are telling me that I am moving into the virtual sphere, then the expectation is that you will give me my tools and those tools are laptops, tablets or iPads for me to deliver this instruction and education that you are now saying is mandatory for me to deliver.”

Abaco, as far as she is concerned, will not be ready to accept teachers coming in for this school year. She said after Hurricane Dorian devastated that island, not instructed by the ministry, some of the teachers there took students into buildings and started to teach them. Her fear now is for the teachers who are supposed to travel to that island to teach students.

“You are asking 40 to 50 teachers to return to Abaco,” she said. “You are asking them to return, but who is going to pay for their tickets, the freight and duty on their vehicles and their personal items? You are asking them to return to Abaco where housing is nonexistent or where it is existing, based on the inquiries of the teachers, the rent is between $1,100 and up to $2,500 per month. When the rental allowance that we have agreed upon is only $700 a month. So who is going to be responsible for the difference? The schools are not ready, where are they teaching these children?”

She feels that moving from face-to-face learning to online learning warrants new policies.

“If you have been doing face-to-face learning for the last 50 years in education and you’re now transitioning to online or virtual learning, then that calls for new policies or an amendment to the policies you presently have,” the union president said. “We are still waiting for the work from home policies; policies for signing in; class size policies and COVID policies.”