Dear Editor,
Having worked at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) for more than two decades at various levels within its academic stratification, there is a moral obligation to address glaring and apparent deliberate conveyance of information which can and occasionally happens to be misleading.
Recently a very popular Facebook personality published on her page, a plethora of complaints and issues raised allegedly by current CPCE students. The Facebook personality shared the students’ grie-vances with the relevant subject Minister, leading to the issuance of a response by the Ministry of Education where it was stated that CPCE is independently run by the Principal of the College.
The intention of the Ministry’s statement is clear; when things are going great at the College and commendation is in order, persons external to CPCE are publicly recognized, without any acknowledgement of the unwavering commitment of the most competent and driven senior administration of the institution and the many dedicated staff. On the contrary, when student grievances of a significant nature are ventilated publicly, the Ministry is quick to apportion blame to the Senior Administration of the College; this occasion proved to be the lowest and worst, where the named current Principal of CPCE was specifically identified as being solely responsible for the many issues being allegedly faced by students.
The Cyril Potter College of Education has been in existence for close to one hundred years. One of the pillars which would have definitely contributed to the longevity of the Institution, is the robust management structure which allowed for collaborative and comprehensive decision making. The structure consisted of the Insti-tution’s Board of Governors, the Ministry of Education and the Senior Administration of CPCE. After the expiration of the last Board (sometime in January, 2023), the reconstituted Board is yet to be installed by the Ministry of Education. The collaborative and collective decision-making process which characterized the College’s management structure for decades has been eroded; sacrificed at the altar of expediency towards the attainment of short-term Ministerial goals.
What obtains currently is a situation where an individual, external to CPCE, has been bestowed with power, by the Ministry, to unilaterally make decisions pertaining to every critical aspect of the College’s mandate. Only recently the Minister of Education on her Facebook page was showering praise on the individual for the great job he was doing at CPCE.
How convenient? When things are going well at the College, the knight in shining amour is worthy of all commendation, but when things appear to be falling apart, a public statement is made, indicating that the College is independently run by the named current Principal; the Ministry of Education attempt at casting blame was most clumsy, to say the least.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Errol London
(Former staff at CPCE)
