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Rivers pushes for better pay for teachers
(CNS): The minister of education has said that she is expecting a proposal from the deputy governor in regards to a review of teachers’ salary and that she has the backing of her Cabinet colleagues in her advocacy of better pay packages, which will not only improve the lives of teachers already within the system but will help in the recruitment of capable and competent teaching staff. “I have from the very beginning been advocating for the civil service to look at the provisions for teachers and remuneration packages, the structure, the hiring practices,” Tara Rivers told CNS in a video interview. However, she noted that the salary of civil servants is not in her domain but in that of the governor and deputy governor as head of the civil service.
“As minister of education I am a strong advocate for professions such as teaching because we know that the quality of your educational experience is very much dependent on the quality of the teaching that is delivered and offered in our schools," she said.
The remuneration of civil servants is in the hands of the governor and deputy governor but she has been in constant dialogue with them, she said, "and they have given a commitment to look at the situation with respect to teachers and how we can improve that system in order to improve their lives as well as improving the prospects of ensuring that we have and we can attract capable and competent teachers."
Rivers said she wants to reward teachers "for good and excellent performance". However, she also said that "for performance that is not necessarily up to par", there would be "appropriate sanctions as well".
"As minister for education I will continue to advocate for very strongly that our teachers need to be given the latitude to teach as well as being given the ability to live and to afford to pay their bills … I know it doesn’t just affect teachers but obviously, as the minister responsible for education, that is the one area that I will be continuing to advocate for," she said.
MLA info access to improve
(CNS): The register showing the commercial interests and possible conflicts faced by the islands’ political representatives is to be improved to make it easier to understand, more accessible and contain more information. The chair of the Legislative Assembly’s Register of Interests Committee, Wayne Panton, told CNS that he is meeting with the clerk of the parliament this week to begin reshaping how MLAs declare their interests, blazing the trail for how all public officials will reveal their interests once the Standards in Public Life law is implemented. Government is reviewing the legislation following concerns from volunteer board members that the law will force them to resign, but in the meantime Panton wants elected officials to be more transparent.
The Register of Interests kept at the Legislative Assembly is not currently up to date, not easily accessible and doesn’t provide for full and frank disclosure from members. Anyone wishing to see the register has to make an appointment to do so and their viewing of the information is constantly supervised. Neither the public nor the media are allowed to copy the contents and the historical record of MLAs is not available.
In a review of the files in March CNS found a fragmented, disorganised file that hadn’t been updated sinceNomination Day. Members’ declarations are not always clear and they currently reveal their business interests in hand written submissions that vary in presentation and completeness.
However, with the passage of the Standards in Public Life law, the members will have to declare much more detail regarding their interests and those of close family. The ethics law also requires senior civil servants to show their interests but the law has encountered problems with volunteer board members.
As a result of the broad requirements under the law to reveal all related interests, some volunteers serving as directors on government companies and statutory authorities working in the private sector have raised concerns that they could be in professional conflict if they are required to declare details relating to their firms or even clients.
In an effort to avoid mass resignations and future difficulties recruiting members the law is set to be changed.
However, Panton said that he did not want to see that delay the changes needed to improve the Register of Interests and its accessibility. Panton told CNS that the current state of affairs is not sufficient and he will be seeking a way to make the information about himself and his political colleagues in the first instance far more accessible and easier to understand.
With many of the local politicians and ministers having extensive business interests, including Panton, who has nine directorships, and Moses Kirkconnell, who has interests in more than a dozen different business as well as land holdings, the purpose of the register is to make it easy for the public to see potential conflicts.
See related story with the Register of Interests, as compiled by CNS from notes, made during an appointment at the LA.
Cost saving report buried
(CNS): Cayman News Service has appealed a decision by the Education Ministry refusing a freedom of information request to release a 2011 report demonstrating how a substantial amount of money could be saved annually by amalgamating the two primary schools on Cayman Brac. Publication of the report and a related PowerPoint presentation, which was shown to a select group of parents in March this year, was blocked by Chief Officer Mary Rodrigues, who bypassed the ministry’s FOI manager and responded directly to the request, refusing on the grounds that the 3-year-old document contained proposals that have not yet gone to Cabinet for consideration.
It is not clear when the PowerPoint presentation was made and for whom, but CNS understands that in March 2014, it was shown at a meeting of government officials, including Deputy Premier and district MLA Moses Kirkconnell, Sister Islands members of the Education Council and six parents of Brac children who were at the time the presidents and vice-presidents of the three Brac PTAs.
One of the parents who was at the meeting told CNS, “It was decided that it would not be feasible as it would put too much financial burden on the people of the island having to drive to 2 different sites, etc.”
The FOI request, made on 18 February this year, was partially granted and CNS was supplied with figures regarding the student/teacher ratios of primary schools in the Cayman Islands, as well as the Lighthouse School.
However, the documents regarding the amalgamation and what savings to the public purse could result were refused. Because the request was answered by the most senior officer at the ministry, the appeal was made to the Information Commissioner’s Office on 25 March, but no conclusion has yet been reached.
In her refusal letter, Rodrigues said it was not in the public interest to release the documents.
“[T]here must be space for public servants to provide advice and opinions and make a wide variety of policy recommendations for the consideration of Cabinet and Cabinet must be able to consider and make decision on these recommendations in a conscientious manner. As the proposals have not yet gone to Cabinet for consideration, it would be inappropriate at this time to prejudice Cabinet’s deliberation and potentially confuse the public regarding what policy direction the government intends to take by releasing the requested records.”
The chief officer also found that disclosure of the documents might “inhibit the free and frank exchange of views for the purpose of deliberation”. She claimed that civil servants “must be able to share all possible options and provide advice and recommendations freely and frankly to be considered by senior management and by policymakers in order to ensure decision-making processes are robust.”
An additional factor against the disclosure, Rodrigues said, was that public servants might feel “restrained in the execution of their duties by the fear of proposals that they make — particularly if those proposals are not accepted by the government and contain recommendations that would be unpopular among the general population — being made under the FOI Law.”
CNS journalist Nicky Watson said she believed the documents were being suppressed by dragging out the FOI process unnecessarily. “The arguments against disclosure could apply to almost any report in any government entity and certainly does not seem to be in the spirit of freedom of information,” she said.
“Regarding the parents who have seen the presentation: PTA members have no expectation that their executive officers will provide input regarding important policy decisions on their behalf, in secret, and without consultation with the wider membership, and do not give them the authority to do so,” Watson noted. “Therefore, if the six parents were there in their capacity of PTA officials representing their members, it is reasonable to assume that the education officials would have expected the PTA members present to have passed on the information to, and asked for feedback from, their respective associations, thereby making the presentation, or at least the facts included, a public matter.
“If they were not present in their capacity of PTA presidents or VPs, then the government officials have now made their presentations to six members of the public with no authority or mandate to provide advice on public policy, thus also rendering it partially in the public domain. Either way, the government officials have now opened this presentation to public scrutiny. Having done so, they have negated the argument thatthis informationwas for Cabinet only.”
Watson added, “The original document by the ministry regarding cost savings by amalgamating the primary schools on Cayman Brac was, I understand, prepared in 2011. It is unreasonable to argue indefinitely that this is a matter for Cabinet to make a decision on before it is made public.”
“What I find most concerning is that, as well as saving money for the whole country, I understand that this proposal may include educational benefits to the children of Cayman Brac. The ministry needs to present if to all the parents and teachers on this island, not just a select few, so that they get real feedback from all the people that this would affect. I cannot imagine why they haven't already done so,” she said.
OECD: teachers love their job but feel undervalued
(CNS): In a worldwide survey of teachers, the OECD found that in about half of the countries, one in four teachers spend at least 30% of lesson time handling classroom disruptions and administrative tasks. The survey of 100,000 teachers at secondary level in 34 countries also found that most teachers enjoy their job, despite feeling unsupported and unrecognised in schools and undervalued by society at large. Those countries where teachers feel valued tend to perform better in PISA, the OECD’s international assessment of student performance.
The Teaching and Learning International Survey found that more than nine out of ten teachers are satisfied with their jobs and nearly eight in ten would choose the teaching profession again.
But fewer than one in three teachers believe teaching is a valued profession in society.
The average class size is 24 students. Teachers spend an average of 19 hours per week teaching,ranging from15 hours in Norway to 27 hours in Chile.
Of an average total of 38 hours of work, seven hours per week are spent preparing lessons, five hours per week marking, and two hours per week on school management, working with parents and extracurricular activities.
Most schools are well-resourced and teachers report positive relationships with their peers and school leaders. But more than a third of teachers work in schools where the principal reports significant staff shortages of qualified teachers, teachers for students with special needs, and support staff.
More than 100,000 teachers and school leaders at lower secondary level (for students aged 11-16) in 34 countries and economies took part in the OECD survey, which aims to help countries develop a high-quality teaching profession by better understanding who teachers are and how they work.
The survey shows that too many teachers still work in isolation, the OECD said in a release on the findings. Over half report rarely or never team-teaching with colleagues and only one third observe their colleagues teach. Feedback is also rare, with some 46% of teachers reporting they never receive any from their school leader, and less than a third (31%) believe that a consistently underperforming colleague would be dismissed.
But the survey shows that there is a lot teachers and school leaders can do about this: teachers who engage in collaborative learning have higher job satisfaction and confidence in their abilities. Participation in school decisions also boosts job satisfaction and makes teachers feel more valued in society.
“We need to attract the best and brightest to join the profession. Teachers are the key in today’s knowledge economy, where a good education is an essential foundation for every child’s future success,” said Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills, launching the survey in Tokyo. “This survey provides strong evidence that teachers are open to change and keen to learn and develop throughout their careers. At the same time, they need to take more initiative to work with colleagues and school leaders, and take advantage of every opportunity for professional development.”
The survey challenges some stereotypical views of the profession. For example, job satisfaction rates are much more affected by classroom behaviour than class size. And most teachers find appraisals and feedback constructive: 62% of teachers, on average across countries, said that the feedback they receive in their school led to moderate or large improvements in their teaching practices. But between 22% and 45% of teachers in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Spain, and Sweden said that they have never received feedback in their current school, compared to an average of 13% across the 34 countries surveyed.
CIFEC adding construction to vocational courses
(CNS Business): Adding to the list of technical and vocational options offered to Year 12 students at the Cayman Islands Further Education Centre (CIFEC), Education Minister Tara Rivers said they are going to introduce construction courses in the next school year. She told CNS Business in today’s video interview that CIFEC has a very strong work experience programme and a number of employers are on board who are very happy with the partnership they have with CIFEC. Plus, she said, in a satisfaction survey 95% of the students said they were very happy to be in the work experience programme that CIFEC offers, where they spend two days per week at work and three at school. Read more on CNS Business
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Little Cayman needs development plan with zoning
(CNS Business): Little Cayman needs a development plan with zoning laws so that investors know what to expect, according to Marc Pothier, the manager of Paradise Villas and the Hungry Iguana on the smallest Sister Island. He told CNS Business in today’s video interview that uncertainty over the future is one of the biggest problems for the island and sustainable development should be the way forward. “There are no golf courses here, there are no shopping malls and there won’t be,” he said, so unless the marine and terrestrial environment are protected, “we don’t really know what we’re selling. And if we don’t know what we’re selling then we don’t know who to sell it to.” The landfill, the future of the airstrip and septic waste are just some of the critical issues that need to be determined, he believes. Read more and watch the video on CNS Business
Dilberts at fault over marina
(CNS): Responding to criticisms by the owners of the Alexander Hotel on Cayman Brac that Cabinet did not require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the two other marina proposals on the island as it did their own, Environment Minister Wayne Panton has explained that the Department of Environment (DoE) felt that it could predict and understand the impact of the two applications by MMCB Ltd and recommend ways to mitigate those impacts. With the proposal by the Dilbert family, on the other hand, the DoE found a number of red flags that “indicate a level of complexity and scope that a responsible decision maker would want to understand much better before making any final decisions”. The minister said the difficulty with the Dilbert application and the reasons it has not progressed rest squarely with the applicant and those advising him.
Panton told CNS that Cabinet received the two coastal works licence applications by MMCB just weeks after receiving the Dilbert’s application regarding their proposal to turn Saltwater Pond next to their hotel into a marina. And even though the DoE recommended against approval of the Dilbert application, on 25 March 2014, Cabinet granted an approval in principle subject to EIA being carried out “to provide further information to elaborate on and to determine whether there was any way to mitigate, the considerable negative impacts anticipated”.
Emphasising that the DoE is not a decision maker in such applications but act as advisors to the ministry and Cabinet, Minister Panton explained that an EIA is considered necessary when the scope, scale and complexity of an application requires far more in depth analysis, modeling and surveying that the DoE does not have the capacity, resources, expertise or capability to carry out themselves. There are instances in which an objective third party service provider may be desirable as well, he noted.
In relation to the Dilbert application, the environment minister said, just some of the factors in Cabinet’s decision to request an EIA are: the scope and size of the works proposed — the proposed channel is more than 700 feet long by 100 feet wide and 12 feet deep; it will cut through the only shallow water reef protected marine park (Replenishment Zone) in the Brac between the shore line and the reef; it will cut through and make a 100-foot wide opening in the fringing reef; it will proceed as a 12-foot deep by 100-foot wide channel into the Marine Park exterior to the reef; it is proposed to be lined by a breakwater which will be subjected to the force of open ocean swells and therefore the structural integrity ofthat is critical.
Additional factors considered by Cabinet were that under the Dilbert Marina proposal, a 100-foot channel would be cut through the public road that serves the south side of Cayman Brac “and in doing so the natural storm ridge which serves to minimise overtopping by storm surge in a hurricane will be breached and therefore opening up the area behind it to allow storm/tidal surge unfettered access to the natural drainage basin inland of the storm ridge.” Plus, he said, the channel would connect to a partially dredged pond, which may allow sedimentation to flow through the channel and out into the marine environment and on to relatively healthy reefs.
Furthermore, the minister noted that no data, analysis or drawings have been provided by the developer to demonstrate the bathymetry of the channel, the likely action of the water, the type of rock and whether, for example, blasting would be required, nor did they provide the structural specifications for the proposed breakwater.
“All of these factors indicate a level of complexity and scope that a responsible decision maker would want to understand much better before making any final decisions. To do otherwise and to suggest or attempt to cause an approval of such an application, as the leader of the opposition has attempted to do, is clearly reckless and irresponsible,” Panton stated. “Making reckless decisions could also lead to significant legal liability on the government for damages caused as a result.”
On the other hand, while coastal works application by MMCB for a lagoon on the North Coast near to Scotts Dock is in a marine park, he said, the channel footprint proposed there is in much deeper water than that for most of the Dilbert application. It is also substantially smaller in that the dimensions are only 30-foot by 144-foot and out to a water depth of 11 feet, Panton said, noting that the amount of material that would be removed under the proposal is only a very small fraction of what would be removed from the reef and two separate Marine Parks under the Dilbert application.
“As a consequence, the DoE feels quite comfortable in predicting and understanding the impact and recommending ways to mitigate the impact of this application and therefore an EIA would not be required,” Panton stated.
“While the south side application by MMCB Ltd is significantly larger in scale and scope than its north side application, it is nevertheless significantly smaller in scope and scale than the Dilbert application,” he pointed out.
Some of the factors which enabled the DoE to conclude that an EIA would not be required for this application were: the proposed marina basin is within the reef protected bay and does not impact the reef; the footprint for the proposed basin overlays an area that has previously been dredged to allow navigation and therefore there is no pristine marine environment; and the proposed depth of this basin is relatively shallow at just 8 feet and the area currently has depths of between 4.5 to 7.5 feet with an average around 5 feet.
“In light of this and other factors, the DoE felt comfortable, as it did for the north coast application, that it could predict and understand the impact and recommend ways to mitigate the impact of this application,” the minister stated. “Both applications by MMCB Ltd were dealt with weeks after the decision was made in the Dilbert application and in fact the time between application and decision was as long as or longer than the time in respect of the Dilbert application.
“From a socioeconomic perspective, the decisions to move forward with all three of the ‘marina’ applications were based on the strongly held views of much of the Cayman Brac community that they wanted to see this happen as planks in the level of economic activity they felt necessary for the Brac.
“The difficulty with the Dilbert application and the reasons it has not progressed are not the fault of the government. They rest squarely with the applicant and those advising him, unfortunately,” the minister stated.
As an example, Panton said that when his ministry sent a letter to Cleveland Dilbert on 3 April letting him know that his application had been the approved in principle and requesting a response within 21 days whether he wished to proceed with an EIA, rather than responding the developer “proceeded to arrange a meeting in Cayman Brac at which he convinced 21 prominent members of the Cayman Brac community to sign a letter demanding support of his application for the channel and marina basin in the pond”.
The minister said, “Subsequent to that letter, the applicant obviously engaged with the leader of the opposition to bring a surprise motion, purportedly as a matter of extreme public importance, to attempt to have the decision of Cabinet obviated and replaced by a resolution of Parliament to approve the application without any environmental impact assessment. The resolution was changed to require an EIA to be carried out.
“Underlying all of these machinations was the fact that the applicant had consistently indicated that he did not think an EIA was necessary, that he would not pay for an EIA and so has seemingly been in search of a way to avoid it. Subsequent to the approval in principle by Cabinet subject to an EIA being carried out and the resolution of the LA which took the same position, the applicant changed his stance slightly and indicated in writing that since government wanted the EIA as a condition, he felt that government should pay for it and ‘upon an approved and issued Coastal Works Licence’ he would then be willing to reimburse the government for up to CI$60,000 of its costs. That obviously would not be acceptable to the government in the circumstances either,” Panton said.
“However, I am pleased that the applicant has now publicly stated that he will pay to have an EIA conducted and I can confirm that we are ready to move forward quickly and assist him in engaging an appropriate consultant who can work to resolve the appropriate terms of reference and carry out the work in accordance with those terms.”
The minister stated, “It is only through an appropriate science-based analytical assessment that the Cabinet may have the information it would need to consider whether to give final approval to this application. If the applicant wishes his application to proceed further he must engage now in good faith in the EIA process and not allow himself to be misguided by others, some of whom have years of failure underlining their history of trying to avoid proper process.”
See below the DoE technical review of all three Brac coastal works applications.
Related articles on CNS:
Brac airlift to double in August with new plane
(CNS Business): Cayman Airways’ new Saab 340 aircraft, which is expected to begin servicing the Cayman Brac route in August, will immediately double airlift capacity, according to Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell. In addition, the installation of the Hold Baggage Screening equipment will be completed at the Brac airport in August, which will allow direct flights from Cayman Brac into the US. Meanwhile, CAL, the only airline to service the Sister Islands, has confirmed that the closing of the Alexander Hotel this week will not affect the flight schedule to the islands in any way. Read more on CNS Business
Tennis Fest for 10&U coming up
(TFCI): Young tennis players will get a chance for some friendly competition next weekend at PwC's first 10&U tennis fest. The fun event will be held at the CIS courts at Camana Bay on Saturday 21 June, starting at 8am. The fest is designed for players who can hold a rally and have a little experience under their belts. The event is organised by the Tennis Federation of the Cayman Islands; director and coach is Noel Watkins. For more information, call Noel on 547-6257 or email:contact@caymantennisacademy.com
Work experience in Year 12 offers long-term benefits
(CNS Business): HSM Group, a small law firm that launched in 2012,has made a significant commitment to the work placement programme of the government’s Cayman Islands Further Education Programme (CIFEC) for Year 12 students. Although HSM currently has just 35 staff members, they take on about ten students each year, who each work at the firm two days a week during the academic school year. Founding Partner Huw Moses, in this week’s interview with CNS Business, said that three to five students who have really shined during the programme are taken on as paid summer students during July, August and September. Three past CIFEC work experience students now work full time at HSM, he said. Read more on CNS Business
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