Newly elected executive of the Anguilla Teachers’ Union is continuing its hard work to represent the interest of teachers and students on Anguilla, and to honor its commitment to building relationships with its partners in Education.
President, Ms Michelle Queeley, and her team made a courtesy call on the Permanent Secretary of Education, Mrs. Chanelle Petty-Barrett, and the Hon. Evans McNeil Rogers, Minister of Education, on Thursday, 11th February 2016. Apart from introduction of officers and their portfolios, the executive spent just over two hours engaging the PS and Minister Rogers in frank and open discussions on a range of concerns and issues on behalf of teachers across all spectrum of the teaching profession in Anguilla.
Chief among the concerns were the working arrangements for Early Childhood Teachers; specifically in relation to the absence of medical insurance, a pension scheme, government’s stipend, remuneration for teachers acquiring the Diploma in Education, and ongoing professional and development training for them. Discussions were also held about the structure and delivery of the teacher-training programme that is currently administered at the Anguilla Community College. More general concerns related to student indiscipline, teacher commitment and teacher performance, and the lack of adequate resources at schools were also raised. The Union also took the opportunity to seek the Ministry’s support for the establishment of a Teachers’ Commission in Anguilla.
All of the concerns drew the commitment of Minister Rogers and Mrs. Petty-Barrett to embark upon reflective thinking and action of some sort, to bring about remediation. In response, both officials expressed deep appreciation to Ms Queeley and her executive, and commended them for the hard work they are doing, and more so, for the bold initiative they had taken to reach out to their Ministry. Among other things, they were more than happy to hear of the Union’s move to begin work on establishing The Teachers’ Commission. As such, they readily pledged the Ministry’s support in seeing this come to fruition.
The Union was also commended for the openness with which it laid the issues on the table. Mr. Rogers extended an invitation to the Union to keep the communication lines open by way of quarterly meetings. This was invitation was readily accepted.
In her overall assessment of the meeting, Ms Queeley, stated: “This meeting was a tremendous success. It was meant to be a courtesy call, but it ended up being a business meeting, given the willingness of the Minister and Mrs. Petty-Barrett to hear us out. We are therefore very pleased with the outcome. I think we have given the Minister and his PS much to think about when it comes to the welfare of teachers and their ability to deliver quality education to our children in Anguilla. They were very supportive of our efforts and we are certainly looking forward to working in a closer partnership with them. We will definitely do our part in keeping them on their toes.”
– Contributed
