Yvette Archer-Alexander, the headmistress of the St Ignatius Secondary School in Region Nine has withdrawn her resignation following an intervention by Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam which will see the temporary transfer of a troublesome teacher to the Department of Education in Region 9.
Archer-Alexander, who served for 27 years in the education system, recently tendered her resignation and two other teachers had sought immediate transfers following an ongoing problem with a teacher at the school. Their actions, which occurred shortly after a meeting was held with the headmistress, the troublesome teacher and her head of department, stemmed from the unsatisfactory manner with which the matter was dealt by regional officials during the meeting.
The two teachers have also withdrawn their requests to be transferred following Sam’s intervention.
On Friday, more than 250 students of St Ignatius Secondary marched out of the school in protest and descended on the offices of the regional officials with whom they sought an audience. Sam, on Saturday, visited the community and met with the teachers and later had a short meeting with parents who had camped out in front of the school for hours to have an audience with him.
Stabroek News was told that as the issue is being investigated the ‘offending’ teacher would be transferred to the Department of Education in the region.
Yesterday, Archer-Alexander said that her decision to withdraw her resignation was also influenced by the actions of the students who marched in support of her. She said that she hopes that the children who took the sudden action on Friday, which she said was not instigated by any teacher, are not called rebels or condemned by anyone. The headmistress said it was unfortunate that the children got involved and after their actions she feels “obligated because when I handed in my resignation I did not see this happening.”
Loyalty
“There was no plan for that to happen and the level of loyalty shown by the children has caused me to move with compassion, it means that the children are depending on me,” Archer-Alexander, who has been heading the school since 2009, told Stabroek News. She handed in her resignation last Tuesday and it would have taken effect on January 13 next year. Had she proceeded with her action, she would have lost all her benefits.
Following the move by the children, parents had voiced their concern over the situation and called on the relevant regional officials to intervene. The students had marched through the streets of the Region Nine community holding placards and shouted that they wanted back their headmistress.
Since she took over the reins of the school, Archer-Alexander had managed to lift the standard from Grade C to Grade A. When she entered St. Ignatius Secondary, the school had a 47% pass rate. The next year, it was 70%. She said that since she arrived, the dropout rate at the school had decreased.
The two teachers who had asked to be removed teach Information Technology and Agricultural Science and are preparing students for CSEC examinations next year. Had they left, parents feared it would have adversely affected their children as it would have been difficult to replace them immediately.
Yesterday, a concerned parent questioned why the issue had to escalate to this point, and said that regional officials were aware of the matter but failed to act in a satisfactory and timely manner. The parent said that after hours of standing in front of the school on Saturday, Sam granted them a short meeting and he said any organization is governed by policies and regulations and he would stand by those in the education system as he deals with the matter.
Chased
The parent was also concerned that the children were chased away by the Regional Education Officer and were later locked out of the compound of the office of the Regional Executive Officer. Both of these officials had also refused to see parents on Thursday.
The parent said that had the IT head of department left, the children would have been in a dire situation as the department’s lab is about to take off with an internet connection in another few days. The parent said she was pleased with the way Sam handled the matter and it is hoped that things would return to normal.
Archer-Alexander had earlier told this newspaper that the teacher in question, who had been teaching Agricultural Science at the school since 2007, had been breaking all the rules set out by the Ministry of Education. She explained that the Ministry’s code of conduct governs the teachers’ behaviour, including when they must report to school, their attendance and their classroom duties.
She had said that the teacher in question is in breach of many of these codes, while adding that her predecessor had encountered a lot of the same issues with the very teacher.
The headmistress had also explained that since the beginning of the term, the teacher had not written any notes of lessons, resulting in her (Archer-Alexander) writing and instructing her to complete them and submit same to her. However, this was never done. The teacher allegedly told her Head of Department (HOD) that she had spoken to the REdO and she was not going to be writing any notes of lessons and that “there is nothing the headmistress can do to make her write them.”
The School’s Board, before it was dissolved, had confronted the teacher and spoke to her strongly about her behaviour.
Stabroek News was told that the situation reached a boiling point when the teacher in question wrote derogatory remarks on a letter sent to her about her behaviour by her HOD and placed it on the school’s notice board for all to see. What was written on it was seen by students. The teacher also wrote a response to that letter, including inflammatory remarks, and pasted copies in different sections of the village for all to see.
Archer-Alexander had put the two letters together and taken them to education officials asking for an urgent intervention. Later, a meeting was held with regional officials, the teacher in question, the HOD and the headmistress. But it was after this meeting the headmistress said she and the HOD were left feeling small and the teacher left feeling empowered.
Archer-Alexander had explained that the former Education Minister Shaik Baksh had appealed to her to go to the school even though she was appointed to the Bartica Secondary School. “I did it to help the children,” she had stressed, noting that she was separated from her family when she took up the position.
