Education Ministry On Principal Issue
The Education Ministry last night [Jan. 8] stood by its decision to assign Temporary Executive Principal Terry Cox to Prospect Primary School to work in conjunction with current principal Shangri-La Durham-Thompson. Ms Cox starts work at the school today.
The move had been criticised by the Association of School Principals [ASP] and a Prospect Primary spokesman said sending Ms Cox to the school was an insult to Dr. Durham Thompson.
Prospect Primary’s executive body is due to convene tomorrow to discuss possible action protesting the move. And the ASP has reportedly filed two grievances against Education Commissioner Wendy McDonell.
But the Department of Education said the move had been under discussion for some time and had not “descended out of nowhere on Prospect Primary School without any rationale or documentation to support the action.”
An Education Department spokesman said Ms Cox was being assigned to the school “to immediately impact student performance.”
The full statement follows below:
It is important to clarify the impression through recent reports that the Ministry of Education descended out of nowhere on Prospect Primary School without any rationale or documentation to support the action we are taking.
It is also important to note that the action being taken is to immediately impact student performance.
The Education Act 1996 makes provision for the Commissioner of Education to act where it is deemed that there is a low performing school. Reading levels and test results identify this as a low performing school.
The public may also recall that the Minister of Education stated that we are placing support at the school level. It was also noted that the Commissioner of Education would lead a process of individualized support for schools based on the needs of that school. This represents another form of school level support.
It is also important to state that this is not the first intervention that the Ministry of Education has provided at this school during the present school year.
Based on the information we have at hand, and taking into consideration various options that might quickly impact student performance, we deem the insertion of an executive principal, who will work in conjunction with the existing principal and report directly to the Commissioner of Education, as the best method to bring about the change we would like to see.
In addition to the insertion of the temporary executive principal, the Ministry will also be inserting support for literacy and the curriculum. There will also be a set of deliverables framed over a timeline in order to have additional data from which to move forward.
While the focus of the Association of School Principals (ASP) has been on the insertion of support at the principal level, the focus of the Ministry is on the whole school.
This intervention model was introduced during a meeting with the Principal along with her ASP representatives on Wednesday 04 January. The ASP left that meeting advising us that they would get back to the Ministry with their response.
On Thursday 05 January, following an ASP meeting, the Commissioner of Education was informed that the ASP did not agree with the intervention and noted that none of their members would participate. Later that night, a letter was received setting out the ASP’s opposition to the Ministry of Education’s intent. While the ASP may disagree, we do not hold the view that we now cannot take the steps we deem best to support student performance.
On Friday afternoon 06 January, the Commissioner attended the school to meet with the Principal to set out further detail of the support that will be provided.
At the conclusion of that meeting, the Commissioner then met with and advised the staff of the direction we are taking. The Students were also provided with a letter to take home to parents at the end of the school day.
This is an intervention model we believe can work to bring about immediate and positive student outcomes. We also believe that it is the Education Act gives the Commissioner her authority to proceed in this manner.
Category: All
