‘Melay’ in schools! ‘Melay’ in education! Look at the kind of people controlling our schools? Are they worth being called educated? The period of the 1950s was the Golden Age for teachers. But today, it is referred to as an ‘Era of Hardship’ for teachers in the 2000s.
The following phenomenon reveals how hard the period is for them:
Wide disorders occur in the classroom of primary and secondary schools, such as permission, and students even enter and leave the classroom during lesson time. This situation diminishes teachers’ authority and makes it difficult to form normal teacher-pupil relationships. It also creates severe conditions for teachers.
High rates of exhaustion among teachers are manifested by high rates of illness, a continuously increasing number of mental disorders, a high rate of ‘burnout’, early retirement or quitting the job despite the benefits of the long-term employment system, etc. This means not only that the teachers’ work is demanding, but also that it is hard to perform successfully now in Grenada and so leads to exhaustion.
Schools in Grenada want to see more harmony and cooperation among those who lead and manage the education system, particularly within secondary schools. Let’s share the space together. Let’s work the space together. Let us understand each other because at the end of the day the ones that we work for are not ourselves. We work for the nation. We work for the nation’s children. We want to see more respect among adults. We want to see more respect from the Ministry of Education.
In our school system we should not have to fight over terrain; the school is a unique organism, where it takes persons working harmoniously together, not the egotistical rantings. The ego kicks in and there are no controls on that ego. So the essence of disrespect flows, making the school ungovernable and unmanageable.
The Ministry of Education has to ensure that schools are run effectively. It is the education system that faces the greatest scrutiny by the public because everybody knows every single thing about education. So, the education ministry must present to the public the best that they can present. And the best has to first start to emanate from the top.
Several Ministry officials have been known to be attacking and harassing secondary school teachers verbally and emotionally on a weekly basis. To ask the Minister for Education (a) how many cases of parents harassing or abusing teachers have occurred yearly from 2022 to 2023; (b) what measures are in place to ensure that teachers have a safe working environment; and (c) what measures are in place to ensure that teachers who are harassed or abused have access to channels to seek counselling and redress. I am 100% positive the Minister for Education can’t answer these questions.
Teachers and School Leaders are expected to accord appropriate respect and courtesy to parents when engaging them, and MOE expects the same from parents in their interactions with our educators. Why do ministry officials disrespect teachers? Why have student, parent, community and ministry officials shown unprecedented extreme hatred for the education system in general and teachers in particular? Teachers’ concerns are ignored by the Ministry of Education. And teachers are putting pen to paper to make sure their frustrations are officially raised.
Despite numerous leadership changes over the past 10 years, the ministry continues to neglect the glaring need for managerial reorganisation to improve its responsiveness to issues in the education system. The succession of changes in management personnel has yet to be made in order to produce any measurable, meaningful or significant improvement in the operational efficiency of the ministry.
Instead, only “melay” and “bacchanal” in education with lots of ‘fight downs’. The Ministry of Education is only good at harassing and victimising teachers on a weekly basis. When will it end? Teachers are already frustrated with their heavy workload.
The Ministry of Education has continued to disregard sections of the Education Act and other pieces of legislation. Our concerns and grievances must be acknowledged and satisfactorily addressed. Where and when ignored, we must pledge and ensure as a body, that our actions express our commitment to solidarity.
As teachers, we must not remain passive in the face of the disregard for our concerns by those in authority. We cannot allow our cause to be continually ignored and silently mortgage our nation’s future.
Educators, it is abundantly clear that we must do for ourselves what no one else can do for us!!!!
Teacher Ambie