Frustration over unanswered questions on school reform
Parents and educators shared their frustration and confusion over school reform at a PTA meeting last night with some considering industrial action.
More than 100 people attended the meeting at Elliot Primary School but organisers said that government officials had not responded to an invitation to attend.
Many attendees at the meeting said they could not understand the lack of progress on school reform and what appeared to be the Government’s about-face on its commitment to eliminate middle schools.
A parent said: “We are told that the children that are here are going to middle school. An hour later in the news they said nothing is changing. What’s the plan?”
A teacher added that they had been left in the dark as much as parents and sometimes only learnt about what was going on with school reform through the newspaper.
She said: “We feed the children. We clothe the children. We make it happen. We are just as frustrated as all the parents sitting in here tonight.”
Another teacher said that students in specialised programmes had been particularly affected by the change in approach because they did not know where they would go in September.
“Now we have no idea where they are going next,” she said.
“If you are moving these children, we need to know so we can start to prepare them to transition because these are children that do not transition well.”
While dozens raised their hands in support of a demonstration or a strike, some educators warned that industrial action would be meaningless if the community did not stand alongside teachers.
One teacher said: “The important part is having parents and the community rally behind us.”
One parent said that while it was well known that construction would need to take place at Elliot to accommodate additional students in the shift back to a two-tier system, no work had actually been done.
She asked: “Why is nothing happening? Where did the money go? They should be here now.”
A teacher said that in the early stages of the process school staff had raised the infrastructure issues the Government was now citing and were told it would be done.
Another said: “Government allocates $37,000 per child for the school system, which is more than any private school on the island. As an educator who has primarily worked in private schools, I struggle with knowing that $37,000 is allocated because we do not see it.
“My parents are buying books for my classroom. Somebody needs to be held accountable with how the money is being spent.”
Another attendee said that while much of the discussion had been about infrastructure, there had been little explanation about how the Government could improve outcomes for students.
“Our children can learn anywhere,” he said. “They need to tell us how they are going to improve our outcomes because at every level the outcomes are not where they should be.
“What are we investing out time and money in to figure out how we are going to improve our children’s outcomes?”
Several parents said the Government needed to push forward with phasing out middle schools, describing the three-tier public education system as a massive error.
1. Infrastructure limitations at a number of our parish primary school campuses, no physical space to house multiple Year 7 and Year 8 groups of students
2. Parental concerns about Year 8 student readiness for senior school
3. Many sites lack the specialist spaces required for Year 7 and Year 8 students, including sciences labs, technology rooms, appropriate physical education facilities, flexible learning environments etc
4. Specialised programmes such as those for autism spectrum disorder, functional skills and functional academics, are not available in every parish school
5. Attempting to retrofit ageing buildings to support Year 7 and Year 8 would require significant capital investment
6. Data shows that parents are still choosing middle school and withdrawing students from Years 7 and 8 at parish primary schools
While some said the change would take time and investments, others argued that the infrastructure was already in place from before middle schools were introduced.
One parent said: “How is there not space in the same buildings that have been there for 60 years?”
The meeting was held after a week of confusion over the future of the school reform process.
Ms Caesar insisted in a statement last week that the Government’s core education reforms of scrapping middle schools and developing signature learning programmes were continuing, progressing towards a two-tier public school system.
However, presentations to groups of parents suggested that the existing three-tier system would continue for the foreseeable future.
The latest proposal would involve primary school students attending “lower secondary” at Dellwood, Sandys Secondary or Whitney Institute middle schools for years 7 to 9 before transitioning to “upper secondary school”.
Ms Caesar said on Friday that the ministry was in the “decision-making phase” and “gathering information so that we can determine the best way forward for education”.
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