Hours after executives of the Bahamas Union of Teachers announced that they had put public school teachers on ‘work to rule’, the minister with responsibility for the public service informed that his colleague, Education Minister Alfred Sears, had declared a crisis in education.
“We got some startling statistics the other day where something like 80 percent of kids in high school are reading below their grade level by something like two grades,” Fred Mitchell told reporters at an afternoon press conference.
“The minister of education has declared a crisis in education because of the question of the ability of kids to comprehend and read.”
Minister Mitchell said that in the face of this, teachers are walking off the job at the insistence of their leaders over an agreement that the government is willing to settle.
B.U.T. President Ida Poitier-Turnquest told The Bahama Journal that teachers would not be working a second more after the 3 o’clock hour because they had rejected the government’s newest offer for a salary proposal, which is substantially less than what the union is demanding.
For instance, the union wants a lump sum payment of $4,000 per teacher, but the government is offering $700, in line with what was paid to civil servants after a contract was concluded with the Bahamas Public Services Union late last year.
B.U.T. is also demanding a $12,000 raise over three years per teacher, but the government’s offer comes nowhere near that.
“The only one who wants to fight is the other side,” Minister Mitchell said.
“We have conceded on every point they have raised. Last week it was the negotiation agreement. They say we were all wrong with the law on the recognition agreement, so we said ‘fine; if we’re wrong, let’s go back to the 1965 agreement. We agree with you. We’ll stick by the 1965 agreement.'”
The government had been attempting to negotiate a new recognition agreement that would have included classroom teachers only as recognized members of the bargaining unit. The union insisted that other education professionals, like guidance counselors, should also be included.
“So the question is, what precisely is it that they do agree with? In the face of the state of the education of children, you cannot keep walking out of the classroom,” Minister Mitchell said.
“How do we explain to parents today that a meeting is called by the Bahamas Union of Teachers at 8 o’clock in the morning when you know that if you call a meeting at 8 o’clock in the morning you cannot go and teach the children at 9?”
Union officials tell another story.
Mrs. Poitier-Turnquest has said repeatedly that because of the many challenges teachers are facing to try to improve the state of education, they deserve to be paid handsomely.
But Minister Mitchell said students who are already “suffering” are being negatively impacted by the actions of the B.U.T.
“There is absolutely no problem, but every proposal you put to them, the say ‘It’s a lie. It’s this; it’s that.’ You got to call the minister the nastiest names you can think of in the book? I mean, I just don’t get it. Quite frankly, we just don’t get it.”
He said government negotiators are ready to sit down as early as today to resume talks.
“What [the union needs] to do is just come to the bargaining table and discuss the matter,” Minister Mitchell said. “Anything you want settled will be settled, If you mean to settle it, but our concern is leaving the children unattended in the schools-I mean, come on.”
Mrs. Poitier-Turnquest, who said teachers were working their assigned times, said the union was also ready to continue negotiations.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
