Is New Grounds Primary School targeted by the MoE?

25.APR.08

Editor: This writer, in a previous article titled “Why New Grounds Primary School?”, explained the injustice meted out to teachers at the New Grounds Primary School with regard to their appointment as Senior Qualified Assistant Teachers (SQATs) at the school.{{more}}

In 2006, the post of SQAT was advertised for the school. Many teachers from the school applied but to no avail. In 2007, the post was advertised again, in one newspaper, one week before the deadline. Interviews were conducted. However, the teachers at the New Grounds School who applied in 2006 were not called for an interview. Were their applications kept on file or discarded by the Ministry of Education?

Can you believe the Ministry of Education / Services Commission once again blatantly appointed two teachers- one working at the North Union Secondary and another working at the South Rivers Methodist (with vacant posts for SQATs) as SQATs at the New Grounds Primary School? Why two teachers at the school (one with a Bachelor of Education degree and another who is pursuing a certificate program) were disregarded? These teachers were unaware that there were three (3) vacant posts of SQAT at the school. The school now has about five SQATs, but only one teacher from the New Grounds School, who was recently appointed, is at the school.

To show additional discontentment to the Staff and Parents at the New Grounds Primary School, the Ministry of Education / Services Commission appointed a teacher from another school as Qualified Assistant Teacher (QAT) at the New Grounds School. Why should the Ministry of Education / Services Commission appoint another teacher as QAT at the New Grounds School when there is a female teacher at the school to fill the post? This female teacher is teaching at the New Grounds School for many years now.

Why our hard working and competent teachers at the New Grounds Primary School cannot fill vacant posts at the school? These teachers are working tirelessly in the classrooms. They sometimes work during the wee hours of the morning, raising funds for the purchasing of needed equipment at the school. Is it mere coincidence or a spiteful act? It is time for the staff and PTA to stand up against these seeming acts of victimization.

A PTA member