Ministry promises better handling of principal & teacher reassignments

The Ministry of Education has admitted they were some mis-steps in the past with reference to principal and teacher reassignments.

This against the backdrop of complaints from teachers and principal unions.

However, the Minister Kay McConney believes the Teaching Commission proposed by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley will help to alleviate these issues in future.

She is firmly of the belief that a better way can be found to handle it.

The Permanent Secretary Wendy Odle says they continue to engage with the Public Service on these matters and she apologised to the principals for the rushed manner in which their lives were altered but vowed that from here on in someone will be accountable for those types of actions.

With that said, a number of principals at the primary and secondary school levels have already been reassigned and informed early so that they were part of working groups to get the term’s curriculum sorted.

With Combermere’s Principal Julia beckles as the New Deputy Chief Education Officer, Robin Douglas will now take that place at Waterford and his former school, The Lodge will be managed by Stephen Jackman who is also President of the Barbados Association of Principals of Secondary Schools and the former Head of Christ Church Foundation.

Foundation will now be headed Dr. Wendy Lewis who was at Princess Margaret.

At the primary level, former Welches Primary Principal Greg Walters will replace Wesley Hall’s Herbert Gittens, who is retiring.