These officials should hang their heads in shame. Firstly the last MOE director and deputy director told employed teachers in subjects such as auto, electrical due to retire thay they could work for another 5 years after retirement. Lies, when the previous D Director went to Cuba to hire teachers in one case to replace a family teacher with proven results,. not only did this teacher not get the courtesy of a response for his request for extended employment his replacement was knowingly hired as a teacher who had never taught that subject before. Tell me how it is more cost effective to pay all the costs with hiring a Cuban when you have established teachers with their own houses on the family islands. Consider that some of these Cuban teachers have an extremely poor grasp of speaking English and in some cases really don't have the students interests in the forefront. Lets face it Cubans put as little money as possible into the local economy preferring to save and buy as much stuff as possible to take back to Cuba. It takes a foreign teacher in many cases years to understand the kids, culture etc etc and as they are on contracts their is little motivation to fully integrate. Why not apprentice the brightest students from BTVI to work alongside an experienced teacher. This would employ a young Bahamian and their must be a way of these apprentices doing summer courses at COB. Teacher training gives you the theory but doesn't necessarily make you an effective teacher. This nonsense will go on for years if wr don't get outward thinking, competant Directors and their underlings. Why is the BUT not getting involved and fighting hard to find a long term solution ?
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Sorry Madhatter, but so many Principals have trouble with simple economics let alone free rein on spending. One Principal who accumulated , over $10,000 worth of debt in unpaid school bills was moved only to be put in charge of his new school's finances. Other Principals deny certain subject areas any funds yet spend freely on themselves on so called official trips into Nassau or bloated gifts for visiting talkers. Then what about the desk jockeys in Nassau who have no idea what subject teachers need (especially practical subjects) and order what they think is needed often in quantities that are miniscule and of inferior quality without ever looking at the pointless excercise wherby teachers submit annual requisitions.

With a well constructed house the roof is the most likely part to fail. Giiven the extortionate premiums that are charged one person I know has the philosophy that if you are able to save what you would pay for annual premiums and put it in a savings account then with bit of luck you could do repaors out of that nest egg. However do these highly paid executives have any idea how impossible it would be for the majority of the population to pay any premium.

Oh common, the PLP take the trophy for victimization. I can name people in sernior positions who were moved and replaced by a inexperienced PLP voter. Or a drug lords wife who suddenly became head of National Insurance in Eleuthera with no previous experience. Nothing changes ,its just third world politics.

How come you can hire Cuban teachers so quickly.

Good ol Brad, couldn't organise a drunken party in a brewery.

You overlook the financial problems the BUT has not least the so called pension fund with no accounting and funds used for other union expenses. On the other hand the union has rarely had any real say in disputes between teachers and the ministry, unfair and unjust dismissals and teaching conditions. As for the expensive annual AGM, all thats does is give union shop stewards a nice holiday package with little or any valid and practical decisions that can correct the poor working conditions, some lousy Princals, and question why the Ministry is still hiring Cubans who have been employed, and are now teaching (that is if they can communicate clearly in English). If you can visit Cuba, employ Cubans, get them to the Bahamas and out to the family islands why the hell are qualified Bahamian teachers waitiing.

So true Belinda son why are you not promoting home grown teaching talent and stopping this influx of Cuban teachers who often cannot even master the English language ?

So much nonsense at the top, ex deputy director Joel Lewis having his nice little jaunts to Cuba to recruit teachers often not qualified in the subject they were going to teach and a resident teacher with proven results either terminated or not rehired. . On Eleuthera there isa Cuban female teaching electrical installation who can barely speak english.. This "our little darlings" is bull when
We have mindless individuals at the top who have little or no grasp of reality and make hirings and firings on the basis of underhanded information. There are many talented residents on the family islands - use them first.

Perhaps start with the huge pile of curry in Palmetto Point, excavated at great cost for a massive hospital that was never going to be built, or weed out the few corrupt nurses selling medication, or profiting from emergency medical flights.