By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Jefferey Lloyd yesterday denied reports that a strike threat by the Bahamas Union of Teachers influenced his ministry's decision to reopen public schools on January 7, 2019, five days later than originally planned.

In an interview with reporters outside Cabinet, Mr Lloyd maintained that the decision was made exclusively by the Ministry of Education following a review of its calendar.

The South Beach MP said education officials realised that teachers would not observe their usual “two week break” between in-year terms, adding that officials viewed it as “unfair” to withhold the usual break period given the current workload of public school educators.

“You remember that on December 14, students left and the teachers had to return for the following week to mark papers and prepare for report cards,” Mr Lloyd said, further insisting: “That would have brought them back up to almost December 20, or something of that nature. Of course, that is only a couple of days before Christmas and that wouldn’t have been fair for them, so we decided that we would make the adjustment.”

This comes in the face of claims by BUT President Belinda Wilson, who on Thursday informed media outlets that the move came after she protested the January 2, 2019 reopening date.

More directly, she told The Tribune when contacted that plans were in place to have “some level” of action if the BUT was unsuccessful in getting a postponement.

Her comment came in response to questions over a leaked communication between herself and members of her team, in which she attempted to solicit support for a potential sit-out for teachers to force the government’s hand in delaying the January 2 date in favour of January 7.

One well-placed source with knowledge of the situation told The Tribune that the Ministry of Education had rebuffed an initial request made by the BUT for the same earlier in the week.

This ultimately led to BUT officials to making a direct request of the Office of the Prime Minister, resulting in a meeting with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday and an official decision to delay the re-opening of public schools.

That same source claimed the decision was made given the current “union climate,” insisting Dr Minnis opted to relent in hopes that the move would be seen as a “step towards peace.”

Addressing the entire dispute yesterday, Mr Lloyd said: “(There were) no threats of industrial action, the union and I, and the Ministry (of Education) continue to have our conversations.”

He continued: “There is no secret that there are concerns that the unions have expressed and those issues are being addressed to the extent that we are able to address them; but no threats. The union has expressed their concerns on a variety of issues and those issues, as we are able to, have been addressed.”

When asked about the criticism the delay has attracted since its announcement, Mr Lloyd contended that there is nothing unusual about the time teacher and students will have off, adding that the current school calendar does offer a sufficient number of days and class hours to cover all essential curricula.

“Students are not being deprived,” he said.

“Now, if there is something that comes up, whether it’s because of weather or whatever other situations that may cause a delay, then teachers are committed, and they have done this over the years, teachers are committed to making up that time.

“Whether it is conducting classes after school or conducting classes on Saturday. In fact, there are a lot of teachers right now, I mean you can go throughout the school system and you can see the teachers on campus on the weekends doing class work, helping students with tutorials and extra classes and so on. They are a very dedicated group of professionals we have in the teacher’s core and I think it is only fair that they have (some additional time off).”

He said: “I was in the classroom and I know what it means to have time off so you can recoup and regenerate and recreate, and also, teachers will use this opportunity, you can go next week and you will see them in the classroom preparing their classes and preparing themselves for the new school year.”

Mr Lloyd added: “So this isn’t, as such, like a holiday where they aren’t doing anything. These are very dedicated professionals and I am privileged to have this team to work with and I am very privileged to give them this opportunity, again, for them to have some pause so that they can be really fresh for 2019.”