B.N.T.U. says Faber is deceitful and lone “bafu”

Minister of Education, Patrick Faber, gave an unceremonious portrayal of the Belize National Teachers Union (B.N.T.U.) and its members when the Ministry explained the results of the 2013 Primary School Examination on June thirteenth. He said he would get in trouble for his comments…and he did. The B.N.T.U. did not mince words today with the Minister who they called deceitful and the P.S.E. which they find to be in need of an overhaul.  News Five’s Jose Sanchez reports.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

When the results of the P.S.E. were revealed, Minister of Education Patrick Faber gave the Belize National Teachers Union a tongue lashing for defending molesters and the poor examination scores. Today, the B.N.T.U. called him deceitful and his speech nothing but “bafu.”

Keisha Young

Keisha Young, Executive Secretary, B.N.T.U.

“Minister Faber also found it absolutely necessary and appropriate to utilize that forum to not only attack the integrity of the Belize National Teachers Union, but also to debase and degrade the teachers of this nation. In his view, the union has stood up for and defended deviant and substandard teachers—those same teachers who he claims are very much responsible for the continuous poor results in the annual P.S.E.  The B.N.T.U. has taken Minister Faber’s tirade very seriously as statements he made was not only defamatory, but also absolutely deceitful.”

George Frazer

George Frazer, (Ret’d)

“He begin to “bafu” and try correct itself on one or two other media house.  Minister, yo talk too much…we noh ina wah cult thing. We are here about education. As I mentioned when you were on KREM, over one year now we tried to meet with you…you too busy to do all kinda things. So please, you are a minister of education and sports. Tend to your business, study yo rules and follow it. And one of them I want to remind the minister. Minister in October last year when the three unions signed the partial agreement, one of them had to do with a study grant—five hundred dollars if you were doing associates or assorted Ed…and a thousand dollars. All of these partial agreement were to begin the first of April so noh make we hear stupidness about September. Start and we are going to push, you are gonna abide by these rules. You cannot be a minister and wah do weh you feel like when it comes to education.”

Luke Palacio, President, B.N.T.U.

“We’ve never said that we do not have teachers who are not performing. We’ve said that time and time again; we’ve discouraged that type of practice. But what we are saying my dear is if you are going to follow the rules, don’t come and use teachers as scapegoats for some of the incompetencies of some of our managers and some of our principals if that were the case. The bottom line is follow the rules. You employ the teacher, you will need now to ensure that the teacher comply or you the management of the school complies with the rules. If the due process is followed, we have no problem. But our teachers will not be paying their dues, our teachers will not be serving this country and we allow somebody who has decided that they want to use that individual as a scapegoat to get away with it. We will defend the human rights of all our teachers as long as it is violating those rights because somebody has decided that she or he is not prepared to follow the rules.”

The B.N.T.U. questioned the validity of the P.S.E. and all of its other reincarnations.

Luke Palacio

Luke Palacio

“You cannot be continuing this blame game. Every year the P.S.E. result comes out, there is some blame going about and nobody says look let us get serious about this matter, let us sit down with the parties involved and try to address the situation. What they have done basically over the years, is change the name of the exam. Every time…some different name: B.N.S.E., P.S.E. or B.P.S.E. some other E…some other entrance.”

Endeavora Jorgenson, National Secretary, B.N.T.U.

Endeavora Jorgenson

“There is a disconnect between the curriculum and the assessment and we as a society tend to be too exam driven. Way back when we had thirty-three percent of teachers trained, you had great results. It is not like you can say because fifty-four percent, you are going to get fifty-four so…there is absolutely no correlation between train teachers and the exam results. The disconnect is between the curriculum and the assessment. So there has to be some serious conversation. What purpose is the P.S.E. serving today? Because in fact, the one purpose it is serving is to an extent creating a level of mediocrity. They are saying if you get less than fifty, they will give the schools more money. So there is a bit of disconnect there because we should be rewarding children who do more.”

Jose Sanchez

“Does the P.S.E. need to be scraped?”

Endeavora Jorgenson

“It needs to be reexamined and clearly state what is the purpose and we need to do huge alignment of curriculum and assessment in our present system of education.”

George Frazer

“How can you expect people to perform when there are a number of things we are not engaged. Classroom size…How many of our teachers have large classes? Dehn noh train. Appointment and deployment of staff and principal…managers, most of them were not into education, some of them are not even Belizean—dehn noh understand—and they themselves di run we system. Ministry itself again di bring in all kinds of people, some of them weh noh even have no background and training. We applaud the idea of inspectorate…dah deh unu need to goh and go with a positive attitude; noh di run down teachers. Look at what is happening…also the curriculum needs to be looked at in line with the developmental need of our country.”

But since the Minister indicated that they didn’t deserve salary adjustments. The union promised that it would continue to fight for it.

Luke Palacio

“The persons elected to the National Assembly…some of them were out there begging, they got elected, they were made ministers and now they are getting big, big salaries since 2005. So they have gotten a salary adjustment. Of course those who were government and are now opposition yes they might have gotten a decrease. But the bottom line is that we can point to who have gotten a raise since 2005 and it points squarely at them. The teachers deserve their salary adjustments and we are not going to settle until we get it. We are going to continue this fight.”

Whatever the future holds for the P.S.E., the B.N.T.U. and their minister, the children will still need proper instruction in the classroom. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.