Archive for June 24th, 2014
Secret report slams teachers
(CNS): A report based on an independent review of local schools is believed to reveal a catalogue of problems, not just with kids’ behavior but over the standard and quality of teachers in Cayman. The report, which was published in November 2012, has remained under wraps in the education ministry but its existence and some of its contents were revealed by the opposition members during Monday’s Finance Committee when Tara Rivers, the education minster, was in the hot seat. According to the limited details revealed during the proceedings, the report includes a shocking condemnation of teachers who are failing to make the grade and are themselves behaving badly.
Teachers were reportedly being negative, indifferent and dismissive towards students, using sarcasm even with primary school children and humiliating them. Teachers were described as being overly aggressive in their manner with their students and failing to understand the learning needs of their students. The report allegedly reveals significant disparities and inconsistencies in the quality of teaching throughout the local system and even, in some cases, within the same school.
The existence of the report was first raised by the opposition leader, McKeeva Bush, but during the questioning of the chief officer in the education and employment ministry, Mary Rodrigues, and other staff, it became apparent that the East End member, Arden McLean, had a copy of the report.
Confusion mounted, however, when it was revealed that there was a second report, which appeared to be a review of the original report by a member of the ministry staff who appearedto have altered the findings of the original author. Also, the original eight pages of recommendations to address the myriad shortcomings in the education system had been reduce to a page and a half. Described by Ezzard Miller as a possible “sanitized version” of the original, the members pressed for an explanation.
Although Rodrigues implied there were some concerns about the evidence to back up the findings of the original report and a review was undertaken, she was not sure of the details. The education civil service boss said that the final report she had been given was different to the two which members appeared to have brought to the committee. Admitting she was unsure as to what had happened, she said she would determine the series of events and find out about the different reports.
Meanwhile, Rivers noted that when she took up office as the minister she had asked staff to review how many of the recommendations from that original report had been implemented and where gaps continued to exist in the system. She told the committee that it was this report that had formed the basis for the new behavior strategies that would be implemented in the schools, starting in the new academic year.
McLean questioned why the report and its damning allegations had been “kicking around” since the end of December, 2012, when no one knew about it or what had been done to address it.
Rivers said the 2012 report and the review conducted this year would all be made public following Finance Committee but she said some of the matters in the 2014 review of the report were dependent on the budget and the plan was to publish all of the reports together.
The members of the committee raised their concerns about the recruitment of teachers, the policies surrounding where they were coming from and the background checks being done. They also asked what was being done about improving the quality of staff now that so many issues had been raised.
Rivers acknowledged the criticisms but she said it was being addressed with performance management and a focus on ensuring that the policies set down by the ministry were actually being followed through at the school level. Ministry staff also spoke a lot about strategies, expectations and continuums but were vague about the actual accountability over inadequate teachers.
With no fixed date for a release, CNS has submitted an FOI request and is making enquiries about getting copies of all of the reports and reviews and will publish all the documents as soon as we have them.