Minister of Education willing to help Tubal School

Patrick Faber

On Tuesday we reported that the Tubal Trade and Vocational school in Ladyville was contemplating sending home four teachers due to financial constraints.  The school’s founder, Lyndon Bailey, told the media that the subvention that the Ministry was providing was not sufficient and that he and his wife have been using their personal funds to sustain the operations of the school.  Today Minister Faber said he was disappointed that the school did not first request an audience to discuss the matter before going public.  He did say, however, that he was willing to see what the Ministry can do to help.

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education

“I have not been in discussion with them very recently. I am sad because it seems that the management of the school has chosen to take it to the media rather than to come to us at this stage. Not to say that they have not come to us in the past; those who mange the school will tell you that we have been very accommodating to the Tubal students. The grant that Mr.—the manager spoke about of I think a ten thousand dollar grant every month, is just a part of the assistance that we give to the school. He can tell you they have sent bills to the ministry that we have paid off. In fact we have given all the first and second year students the subsidy money so that they can help with paying the bills and so on and we have had discussions on how we can help. But all of this, people will remember, comes outside our budget. It si not something that has been planned for and given the hard economic times that we are in, we can’t necessarily help right off. But I want to extend a hand to the Tubal institution. I think that nobody can dispute the kind of services that are offered at Tubal are very much needed in our society today given the incidence of crime and that we can sit down and discuss how we can give assistance. I’m not sure to what tune the assistance is needed so I can’t make a commitment outright, but I am prepared to sit down and talk about how we can salvage the institution and stop it from closing its doors.”