Teachers are people too!

Editor: Please permit me space in your newspaper to express a particular concern. Today marks the beginning of a new school year in reference to teachers as they attend professional development meetings during the course of this week.

I must speak out for the Staff of the Dr. J.P. Eustace Secondary School as they try to come to grips with what they have to deal with in the upcoming year.{{more}}

For a long time the teachers at this institution had to put up or deal with the toilet facilities or lack thereof at the school. It is very disheartening after officials from the Ministry of Education and other members of the Teachers’ Union, (an organisation of which almost 80 percent of the staff is part) during the last school year, made numerous trips to the school and did their assessments and saw for themselves the need for better facilities and made promises that it will definitely be dealt with for the new school year, to see now that NOTHING was done.

The teachers can’t believe that they have to endure another year of either going home to use the washroom or opting to share the not-so-proper-either students’ washroom or simply holding it in (which is unhealthy) until they find a washroom, or even hopping and skipping through the puddles of water to squat on the semblance of a toilet at the school’s annex.

The staff is mindless about what they are supposed to do in this case. Due to the fact that many of them have commitments and need their jobs, it will be difficult to take any action in this matter, in case they lose their jobs, so as a result they will try to make do with the situation. Teachers are constantly being reminded about their roles in the schools and their need to always put the children first. I would like to know how you can think about a child when you badly need to urinate and there is nowhere to go. It pains me that the Ministry of Education and other ministries that are involved find it hard to put something as simple as a toilet at the school. I hope that the persons who are responsible for matters like these remember the teachers of Dr. J.P. Eustace Memorial when you are seated comfortably in your own washroom facilities at your workplace. I hope you will remember that no matter what, there is someone who always looks out for the underdogs. Some of these teachers could be teaching your own children. Is this what the Education Revolution is about? If that is the case, I want no part of it.

A Former Teacher