By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Education Minister Jeff Lloyd urged officials to consider separating the Department of Education from the Public Service, adding that an Education Authority would have its own pay scale and more “proficiently and efficiently” respond to a crisis, such as the educational assessments needed to address learning loss after Hurricane Dorian.

Mr Lloyd was responding to concerns regarding how conducive the current education system is in a country that is frequently susceptible to hurricanes. He spoke yesterday afternoon on The Foundation with Grant Howard on the Guardian Radio show.

However, Bahamas Union of Teachers president Belinda Wilson told The Tribune yesterday that Mr Lloyd should “sit small” as he is no longer in government.

“I take Jeff Lloyd, the former Minister of Education’s comments, with a grain of sand. Jeff Lloyd has all the answers now, but he is not in the chair. He has no credibility to speak on any education issues, because he had an opportunity to fix the problems and he squandered his opportunity. So, Mr Lloyd, sit small,” she said.

Mr Lloyd said: “I wish to suggest that whoever has the authority, separate the Department of Education from the public service. Why? I don't believe that teachers are going to achieve the respect that they deserve, certainly from a compensation and a work environment standpoint, as long as they are in the public service."

“Here's what I think, teachers with a master's degree who sit in a classroom and have to manage the number of students that she does and has to do the work that she does, in the public sector at the moment makes exactly the same salary as another master's degree holder anywhere else in the public service; whether it's Ministry of Agriculture or Ministry of Social Services, and that’s rabidly unfair.

“That teacher’s responsibility and the demand and expectation on that teacher and those other master's degree holders could not come even close.

"Separate them, so that they can have meaning. Separate the department, so the teachers and all others can have their own pay scale, the same way that NIB has its own pay scale, the same way that Water and Sewerage has its own pay scale, like Airport Authority has its own pay scale,” he said.

Mr Lloyd also spoke of challenges that the Ministry of Education has had during the summer with school repairs and how this process would be improved with the establishment of an education authority.

“That's not the blame to be placed on the Ministry of Education as such, because you don't have the control over the infrastructural development of our industry; 260 buildings under the remit of the educational establishment,” Mr Lloyd said.

“You have to go to the Ministry of Works for those buildings, if there is need for repairs to be assessed, of course, the Ministry of Works for those contracts to be prepared on negotiations with those respective contractors. In many instances, despite the Herculean effort by the Ministry of Works, and I don't want to down them, because I know they're working very hard.

“They simply don't have the resources to manage 260 buildings wherever there might be repairs needed. Plus, the many other ministries and departments of government that they also have responsibility for. Plus, their own work, whether it's road building, road repairs, bridges, docks, and so on. It's just unfair.

They do a great job, but there's a certain limitation, because of resources, principally technical resources and persons and most people are not going to come back with a master's degree in engineering and work for the government for $25,000/$35,000 a year when that's one project for them.

Mr Lloyd continued: “When we separate the department of education and make it its own authority, educational authority, then you have control of your budget, then the minister or the executive director, or whoever is in charge at that time, can operate according to your own schedules.

"Nobody is saying that you just have a run of the muck, be accountable, you have responsibility, you have control of your own schedule, your own paradigms, your own budgets, you now can execute with responsibility and proficiency and efficiency in a manner that the system deserves.

“You see what happened with Hurricane Dorian. You need to be able to respond on a dime, with an educational assessment, and you need to be able to do it without having to go through all of the bureaucracy that now obtains in the Public Service. Given that authority you'll be able to do it.

“Of course, I know that some educators and some people who are in the ministry may say, Oh, well, you know, we leave the public service, we're going to lose all of our benefits. No, they all can be imported into that new authority. You’ll lose absolutely nothing. What you do gain is efficiency, proficiency and a dynamism to respond as needed when needed for the benefit of your clients who happen to be students and their families.

“You leave the Ministry of Education, as it is; the ministry regulator responsible for the governing in terms of policies, regulations, so on. But the executive management of education, I say, respectfully, an authority,” Mr Lloyd said.