Dear Editor,
The Anna Regina Multilateral School held its termly PTA meeting on Sunday, January 14th 2007. This is the first time in twenty four years that I know of that both the Head teacher and Deputy Head teacher have been absent from such a meeting.
Compounding the situation is the fact that no senior teacher was briefed to respond to queries that would arise. Parents expressed grave disappointment at the situation.
A senior teacher’s tirade against parents, ridiculing and embarrassing them and accusing them of working against the school plunged the school to a new low. Worse, her disregard for the chairman’s caution to discontinue her attacks constitutes an arrogance and disrespect rarely seen.
Some of the issues that required responses are:
1. The status of investigation into the pregnancy of a dormitory student forcing her to leave school.
2. The pregnancy of a form five Amerindian student forced to leave school without entering for the June 2007 CSEC Examination.
3. The status of investigations into the verbal and physical assault of a form five student by a senior teacher.
4. The conducting of the business of photography by a teacher during school hours.
5. The award of fictitious grades to students, disregarding course work requirements and proper making of end of term scripts.
6. The rehearsing of test questions in some classes, disadvantaging students in parallel classes.
7. The blatant falsification of times of arrival for a senior teacher and condoning the same.
8. The decision to have a teacher act as Deputy Head, someone who was recently disciplined by the TSC by way of secondment to another school for “persistent disregard for authority and dereliction of duty.”
Significantly, no member of the School Board was present (except the teacher representative who was present as a staff member). Meanwhile, parents are still waiting for the Board to convene its meeting with them (overdue since July 2006) to report its activities for the year.
Yours faithfully,
P. Lall
