Black Immigrant Daily News

BIRD AIRPORT IS STIGMATIZING THE NAME

Observation by Airport Observer

Under the cover of the storm last weekend, a strange set of circumstances occurred at Bird Airport. The Prime Minister ag. Hon.Steadroy was made aware of a situation at the airport early Friday morning and immediately had the Permanent Secretary send out a directive to the Airport Management, to have aircraft seeking shelter from Storm Fiona accept the complimentary Storm Shelter offered by the Bizjet Hangar.

Having received the directive from the PM ag. the airport Management called the PM ag and advised him that they had stopped the aircraft from using the Bizjet Hangar because the Hangar was not insured, and requesting that he overturn the directive.

As a consequence, the directive was not overturned because the Minister was advised that the Airport Management has lied regarding the insurance of the hangar, a copy of the insurance cover was seen by him.

The directive was not overturned, the Airport Management just ignored the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile at the airport, the owners of a helicopter (US $800,000.approx) nervously called everyone they knew, as the winds picked up and they knew their helicopter would shortly be blown apart.

After they were told by a member of management that ‘ nothing goes into that hangar and nothing comes out,’ they realized they would have to accept the responsibility of securing their equipment.

So they pushed the helicopter against the tiny wind gusts across the ramp, and took shelter in an empty hangar with insecure doors, praying that the temporary shelter would preserve their helicopter.

Luck was with Antigua because looking at what happened to our neighbours, Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico, had the storm hit Antigua, in the absence of secure Storm Shelter, their helicopter would have been just a heap of metal.

The next day the Airport Security went looking for the helicopter and advised they could not find it. After checking around, it was discovered that the Airport Security at two Gates allowed the owners to remove their helicopter from the Airport compound without Security notifying the Airport Management, making them look even more inept.

Under normal circumstances on a normal airport, this would be reason for an in depth investigation, and litigation for business interference and stigma damage by those whose businesses were affected.

In Antigua positions go by favours not by knowledge and experience.

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News

National Parent-Teacher Association president Kevin David. –

PARENTS of schoolchildren have varying views on the TT Unified Teachers Association’s (TTUTA) continued protests about wage negotiations.

After recently rejecting an offer for a four per cent salary increase, TTUTA has been calling on Chief Personnel Officer Dr Daryl Dindial to meet to negotiate further – but he has not been responding.

This led to the first protest on day one of this school term (September 5) where teachers stayed home from work.

It continued on Thursday and teachers only came out to work for the second half of the day.

And TTUTA has since said there will be another on Monday (Budget Day) where members will stay home to “reflect on what a 2022 budget could mean on your 2014 salary.”

President of the National Parents Association (NPTA) Kevin David told Newsday he would not “throw words” for TTUTA. He said since parents are made aware of these disruptions in the education system, they can take extra steps to ensure children continue to learn despite this.

“All parents need to step out of their comfort zone and work together to reduce the factors that affect our children from receiving a proper education.”

Asked how TTUTA’s protests are affecting students, he said, “That’s the thing – it’s affecting them negatively.

He said there is no intention for the NPTA and TTUTA to “be against each other” and that such a narrative would be pushed if he were to directly comment on the association.

One father of a standard two student told Newsday while he understands TTUTA’s right to fair wages, “I do not understand why it has to be at the expense of innocent children.

“The disruption caused by these particular types of protests, coming on the heels of the disruption already caused by the pandemic, should have nothing to do with the students who are simply trying to get an education from an already disadvantaged school system.

“No one is saying forfeit your protests, simply find a way to do so without affecting the upcoming generation who never asked to be a part of any of this.”

A father of a standard four student said, “As a parent, I can empathise with the plight of teachers who, despite their tireless efforts to educate and nurture our children, are still battling crippling inflation on a salary that is seven years old.”

A mother of a standard two and form four student said, “Covid19 already took a hit on these kids. This will just make it worse.”

And the mother of a child in form six (upper) said it’s annoying.

“The people who least affect the salary negotiations – students – are feeling the biggest brunt of the protest actions. Unions need to find better and more innovative ways to protest without hurting the students,” she said.”

Another mother added, “I totally understand their plight, but the frequent absence from school is unacceptable, especially yesterday’s (Thursday’s) action with that half day s—.

“I am thinking they should at least hold out until after the budget, and then if nothing is done, they (are) free to act up again.”

One father whose child attends private school told Newsday he has friends and relatives who teach at public schools and “it’s not easy.

“It’s not about them just wanting more money so they can lime and galavant. There are basic things that schools need that some teachers have to dip into their own pockets to provide, and a livable wage is not too much to ask for.”

Another said, “Prices are rising and four per cent is a low increase, especially due to the amount of time that has passed since there last salary increase.

“I am not very political but honestly, I think across the country we are faced with the same circumstances. It is a good thing for the union to stand up and be successful to show that at least as a nation, we have a voice. I think that is positive and important so I support the move.”

One parent alerted Newsday to the Education Ministry’s website, saying the links to the primary school curriculum do not work.

“Therefore, parents can’t use that as a guide during all these rest and reflect days,” she said.

When Newsday visited that section of the website, an error screen popped up after clicking the curriculum.

It says, “This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.”

Newsday contacted Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly for a comment but all calls and messages went unanswered.

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INGEZONDEN Het bezoek van de Nederlandse premier Mark Rutte aan Suriname werd door staatshoofd Chandrikapersad Santokhi gebracht als een hoogtepunt

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REAL NEWS- With the new school year only three weeks old, parents and teachers – as well as students, themselves – are said to be angry and frustrated at the chaos reportedly created by the Ministry of Education.

According to both parents and teachers, there is a severe shortage of textbooks and a dearth of laptops in the government-secondary schools, and the situation is having a negative effect – especially on First Formers.

Sources in the Ministry tell REAL News that, with the distribution of E-books in earlier years, hard copies of textbooks had been routed to the private secondary schools. So now that the E-book scheme has been abandoned, the shortage of texts in the government schools is acute.

To make matters even more complicated for students, the source says, teachers refuse to use the content from the discarded E-books – “for whatever reason” – and have reverted to the “chalk and talk” method of instruction.

Incoming First-Formers are feeling the worst of the situation, a parent informs our News Room. Most of these students have neither textbooks nor laptops, a father says – which is making his

son’s transition from primary to secondary school “more difficult than it’s supposed to be.”

Investigations into the situation reveal that, while new laptops were sourced, their purchase and distribution by the donor could not be completed before the new school year opened. And at this time, reportedly, the Board of Education (BoE) has no idea when these devices will be delivered.

Other parents tell REAL News they were required to turn in their children’s laptops during the summer, so they could be upgraded by the BoE. However, these devices have not been re-issued to the students “even though we expected to get them before school reopened,” a mother of two complains.

She adds that she knows other parents who paid for repairs or replacement of damaged laptops – and their children, too, are still without the devices, she claims. “Out of pocket and out of laptop, too,” is how she describes the situation.

Meanwhile, she says, there are no explanations or answers from either BoE or Ministry of Education officials, and the principals can offer only “empty apologies.”

A Ministry source believes that parents need to “start making noise – especially after the children missed so much school during COVID.”

She is critical, too, of her boss, Education Minister Daryl Matthew, and says he must take responsibility for the lack of planning now in evidence. “It seems like he wants to repeat the poor academic performance we saw at CSEC this year,” she says.

A retired principal is expressing the same opinion, and she points to the recent review of the Caribbean nations’ education systems, noting that “poor Antigua and Barbuda didn’t even make it near the Top 10.”

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