Walton Brown: “Nothing Short Of A Travesty”
The announcement by Education Minister Nalton Brangman that the school year will be shortened by five days is “nothing short of a travesty,” Shadow Education Minister Walton Brown said.
Yesterday Education Minister Nalton Brangman announced that the 2013/14 school year will be reduced five days a year rather than teachers taking one day off a month as agreed to by the Unions last month as a cost cutting measure.
Mr Brown said, “This week has proven to be a difficult week for public education and for our students. The message being conveyed by the OBA government is that it is acceptable to jettison our children so that monies can be saved while many millions of dollars in tax concessions are granted to businesses that would otherwise be available to the government.
“This latest announcement by Education Minister Nalton Brangman that the school year will be shortened by five days to accommodate the 12 days of reduced work time is nothing short of a travesty. The message being sent by this government is that our children and their progress is not their priority.
“To be fair, though, I know this announcement by the Minister had to have been a difficult one for him since he was the champion of extending the school day to provide a greater range of opportunities for our young people.
“The fact that the Premier and other members of Cabinet could sit around the table and agree to this, most likely over Minister Brangman’s objections, tells me a great deal about the importance they place on the education of our young people.”
It is abundantly clear that government is not committed to the education of our young people. The PLP had 14 years to do something… anything, really… on an issue that, when they were the Opposition before their term in office, they claimed was so vitally important that it required much work.
And now, the OBA are treating it similarly. Very disappointing.
I somewhat agree Kim but, times have changed and there is an abundant amount of dollars unaccounted for that needs to be made up somehow and subsequently this will require the schools feeling the crunch as well.
Yes,this is sad but necessary at this time. Walton Brown is an empty can rolling down a rocky hill making a lot of noise and that’s about it. As you’d mentioned the the P.L.P. had 14 years to change things but did nothing…”Same-shhhh*t-different-day”
Students will only miss one teaching day. The students are already out for the week in February, they have given the teachers the entire week. The last day od school most schools have actives and teaching does not happen. Likewise for the other two days.
Where is the PLP fact checker!
Would I be correct in saying that the teachers still get seven additional days off during the shortened school year.
Without pay!!!
Not so sure about the “days off”. I’m not sure how it is in the public system but every teacher I know spends a fair amount of their own time doing lesson planning, writing reports and keeping up with their own “homework”. So even the “summer off” makes up for the extra time spent outside of school hours keeping up with work.
So a week off may be a week off for a teacher who has planned ahead and may end up being a non-paid working week for those who haven’t.
I am a teacher, and I approve this comment!
Well if we had any money this wouldn’t be happening. Hmm!
It is a travesty that the education of our children has been affected by this agreement to cut backs, but to hear a Labour minister complain about cuts to the school year is quite preposterous. Where was he when this was negotiated with the unions? The unionized workers agreed to this and where were you then? You had fourteen years to do something about the education system, but you did nothing.
It is quite simple to fix; add a week to the school year and deduct five days from it as the teachers get paid any way! Who gets 8 weeks for summer holidays, two at Christmas, two at Easter, all the half term holidays and all the holidays off in between?
Walton very busy this week with useless pronouncements…next up Roban followed by Furbert and on and on….
Why don’t the teachers work one day/month for free?
This is a very good idea!
Only one problem. The unions won’t allow it.
Or a smaller pay cut could have been negotiated (say 2%) compared other Govt. employees (4.6%) without a change to the hours.
Just imagine what the millions of dollars spent on Grand Atlantic and the hundreds of millions of overruns concerning capital projects, over the last decade or so, could be used for nowadays.
Anyways, a “travesty” is a bit of a stretch, but to be expected from teh Opposition these days. The children are only losing one day of actual lessons while the others are the last days of the terms. And anyone that went to school knows full well that you don’t do lessons on the last day of school, before any holiday. That is reserved for class parties and sporting events.
But anyways, continue the fear mongering Mr. Brown. Not too long ago the same people were complaining about the possibility of longer shcool days. Got to make up your mind people.
It does mean tht the last day of term (no lessons, parties as you put it) is a day earlier which would have previously involved lessons!!
Guess you never went to school then…
Clearly you need to go back if you cannot see the point I am trying to make.
yeah Walton, what about your Alma Mata’s state of affairs compared to WA. you’ve already shown how much you ‘care’ for education by allowing Berkeley to become…..just another school.
Yes, the real travesty is what the PLP did to this island for 14 years.
Government said, it is estimated to save $21 million in the first year. Ok savings fine BUT:
For that last 20 yrs, UBP/PLP/OBA, Bermuda Governments have not been able to handle Public education, with billion spent, the same men and women have been around in either side of political spectrum. what’s heartening is that neither seem to have a definite solution instead what we have seen is policy driven government one after the other. I think PLP and OBA should stop bickering, admit the mistakes made and when the parliament come back, put some concrete proposals to fix this billion dollar tax payers money machine once and for all and save the Bermuda education system.
the travesty was voting PLP
Walton, your PLP has wrecked Bermuda. There is NO MONEY!
The OBA government is trying to stop us from sliding down the slippery slope that your party put us on. They are trying to prevent us going over the edge of the cliff.
Right now it is not clear if the OBA can save us as the damage that was done is SIGNIFICANT. IB lost their trust in the Bermuda Government and may not come back if they think there is a chance of the PLP being returned to power at the next election.
I thought that you were an intelligent man, but you show your lack of knowledge on how the economy works when you attack the OBA for giving concessions to business. The OBA has to do this as they are afraid to invest because of the damage that your party has inflicted upon us. These concessions are designed to get OUR PEOPLE back to work.
People don’t realize that if we don’t get our educational system right we are going to be in a worse island 15 years from now. These kids are going to come back with a vengeance!!! Education is not the OBAs strong point for sure!!! If we get Education right, we can spend less on Public Safety
Appointing an American commisioner and now shortening the school year–pathetic. My kid will be going to private school. Which public school has children from an OBA parlimentarian? #justwondering
Education was an epic fail under the 8 PLP ministers !!!!!!!!
Reducing contact time with teachers isn’t going to improve things though.
I lost respect for Walton Brown over this supposed ” travesty”. Walton usually is someone who I thought knew the facts. He clearly does not show that here and is just on another bash OBA by any means necessary campaign. Those who are in the know…know that this will NOT AFFECT STUDENTS IN ANYWAY!
Here is a possible solution for public education:
Make all schools private, but funded by government per child by allowing the money follow the child. In addition, allow parents to choose where they would like to send their child.
Make it so that anyone to open a school that caters to whatever niche they choose and operate it as a business. Their operating budget would come from a government grant per child, say $20,000 (just a round figure I chose for now). Then these independent business owners can open a variety of school types; religious based, performing arts based, STEM, boys only, girls only, general education, primary years only, full school, trade school etc. In addition to the niche they serve, they are also be free to choose whatever curriculum they desire.
Then what is needed is an island wide standards exam in the core subjects to ensure that no matter what curriculum a school chooses, they are still held accountable to a national/international standard. All standardized exam results should be published each year so that parents can see if the school they have chosen for their child is meeting the national standard.
So how does a system like this work? Say school A decides to function as a scholl for at risk boys between the ages of 5 – 12 and they want to cap student enrolment at 30 boys. Then their operating budget would be $20,000 x 30 = $600,000 per year provided by the government. This school hires what teachers they want, with whatever salary they choose and implement a curriculum that best suits their needs. At the end of the year, the students take the nation wide exam in addition to whatever internal/international exams the school may have and the results are published. If a parent is displeased with the school, they pull their child out and put them in a school that is better suited to their needs. School A then loses the grant for that child: $20,000. If the school is under performing, then parents move their children and the school can no longer operate, hence a bad school is closed. School B on the other hand may cater to the performing arts and have a student cap of 100 students. Then their operating budget will be $20,000 x 100 = $2,000,000. Hence, the same procedure takes place.
What are the benefits of such a system? First, parents have CHOICE! Something they do not have now. Underperforming schools shut because of this choice that parents now have. Schools are forced to be creative and high performing so as not to lose their grant per child. A variety of schools can be developed catering to wide range of needs. Costs are severely reduced because government is no longer responsible for the day to day operations of each school, hence a much smaller MOED, no commissioner of education, no senior education officers, and so on. The savings will be millions of dollars, just on senior MOED staff alone.
What we have now is a top heavy, high costing, low performing system. What we can achieve is a top light, low cost, high performing system where parents ultimately make the choice regarding their child’s education and schools are held accountable because if they underperform, then they will lose students and they will close. Something to think about.
Though I understand what you are trying to put across here, there would be GLARING LOOPHOLES with this approach.
A system of this sort would without a doubt require stringent controls, but I consider it out of the box thinking that can potentially save millions and increase the quality of education at the same time. I firmly believe that too much money is wasted in our top heavy system with high paid individuals that really have no direct effect on educating our children. Free market reduces costs and increases accountability, in my opinion.
A basically good solution other than the schools would have to work together to produce the best end product possible. Vastly different curriculums will not mesh together from one age group to another.
An overseeing board with reps from each school & Government would be needed. Like the DOT the MOE Admin section would be a mere fraction the size it is now releasing millions for other needs.
How many actual teaching days are being lost? Facts please.
How many days are already being lost in the public schools? It has been awhile but Berkley & CBA get out 20 minutes earlier everyday. That is 100 minutes, 2 1/2 40 minute classes per week. That is about 30 classes or about 5 days per term LESS classroom time that kids in the public schools get compared to the private schools.
The Minister now wants to cut class days even further to make it something like 20 fewer school days for the public school vs the private school.
What makes all of this even more sickening is that each public school student costs about $3000.00 MORE per year than the most expensive private school.
Government run public education has been a shambles for decades. Put it in the hands of people who know what they are doing. Take it out of the hands of politicians & civil servants.
If ever there was a department that should be considered for privatisation it is the Education department. It is more important to this country then Tourism! Yet successive governments and ministers have paid lip service to improving it. There should not have been ANy cuts to this ministry! We simply cannot afford it.
Walton why don’t you stop complaining and
try to help the situation with a solution.
Nalton is your first cousin if he’s having a
little problem which I don’t see try assisting him personally and not on social media.Are you jealous of your cousin seems
like it because family do help each other.
The island is having serious issues and Walton you and PLP helped to ruin our paradise so stop complaining about the OBA
they are only trying to clean up your mess first.
These kids are getting worse every year. Just go check out the 40 kids hanging outside the community centres every week acting the fool, doing sexual things, doing illegal things and just being a general nuisance to the community.
Step 1 is parents, do things with your kids over weekends. I don’t remember my family ever letting me go wherever I want doing whatever I want unless they knew the people I was hanging with and what we were doing.
Stop swearing, start caring.
The reality is EVERYONE has been asked to share the sacrifice with the pay cuts and unworked days. The solution to avoid unfairness is to scrap the unpaid working days. Just take the pay cut and continue to work as normal. Or are we to selfish to consider this. As for teaching time lost….that’s a load of crock! There are so many daily activities that are non teaching taking away instructional time now and the teachers know it! The reality is the lack of accountability in the system and the top heavy Ministry. A reporter needs to take a real good look at the staffing there. Totally over the top!