Cole Simons: ‘The Premier Must Step In To Help’
“The Premier must step in to help a floundering Education Minister sort out a stand-off between the Ministry, teachers and Principals,” the One Bermuda Alliance said today.
Shadow Education Minister Cole Simons said that “education should get the same level of attention as the Government’s drive to bring the Fintech industry to Bermuda,” with Mr Simons adding that “the issue was teetering on the brink of a national crisis.”
Mr Simons said he was “delighted to hear that the Commissioner of Education had referred the dispute with the Bermuda Union of Teachers to the Government’s labour relations team, with the first meeting scheduled to take place today.”
“The referral to labour relations is probably the first major step that the public has seen that will begin to defuse the emotional and economic tensions and high level of mistrust and anxiety which are prevalent within our school family and Bermuda’s educational ecosystem,” he said.
“The current stand-off between the Minister, the Bermuda Union of Teachers and Bermuda Principals is unprecedented and has a way to go before there is consensus and the current malaise is resolved and brought to a conclusion.
“Everyone in Bermuda agrees that this situation was almost on the brink of a national crisis so it is time for the Premier to step in and help to get this matter under control so that education can get on an even keel, and that our students are once again in a positive environment which will see them to succeed. The Premier cannot leave the Minister of Education out there to flounder.
“He needs to again meet with the BUT, the principals and other educational stakeholders so that they can be provided with the comfort that they are heard, and that their concerns and issues are going to be addressed.
“He must acknowledge educational professional’s pain and come to grips with the current lack of confidence held in the current Minister.
“The Premier must demonstrate that education will get the same level of attention, priority, and resources that he and his Government has afforded the development of Bermuda’s Fintech industry.
“I appeal to the Premier and the Minister to schedule a number of ongoing meetings with all of teachers, Principals, paraprofessional and other stakeholders.
“These meetings should embrace our educational teams’ values, input and ideas with the result being a blueprint that will get education back on track.”
Let me re-phrase,
Shadow Education Minister Cole Simons said that “education should get the same level of attention as the Government’s drive to bring the America’s Cup to Bermuda,”
Cole obviously came to this conclusion last night?
Ridiculous comment, what has the AC to do with it? – you still bleating on that?
What he is saying is Rabain is hopelessly out if his depth, and I think pretty much everyone would agree.
No, he is pointing out that Burt has not yet come to this conclusion.
The Minister does appear to be totally out of his depth. Who would replace him?
Its clear that this administrtion is now well under fire.
Damning report from the fiancial stability group
education in shambles
debt overhang is crippling
public services are creaking ; and
gun crime is back on the rise.
Dire times for this Gvt. It should stop acting like opposition and seek broad based input to help the country out of the tailspin it is in….
15 years of abject failure. None of this should be surprise. 18 months in, and the cracks are starting to show.
No ideas, no clue. Out of their depth.
The Minister has got to go. He is going to go down as one of the least effective of the (many) ministers we’ve had. Really appears to be a rabbit caught in headlights
I guess it takes a floundering Education Minister to recognize one.
Cole needs to know when to stay quiet. Burt & Co. don’t need him to make them look useless. That is the one thing that they excel at all by themselves.
What for??
OBA was the worst government ever and YOU were a part of their FAILURE!!
You mean they attracted investment and made tough fiscal decisions?
But all you cared about was pathways to status, I think you got your priorities wrong.
Hard, tangible facts suggest otherwise
So failures improve our economy then? Hmmm. Seems to me we should be having a vote of no confidence in the plp winners then. Considering the “winners” are tanking our economy………….AGAIN!!
Care to come up with anything at all to back that claim up? Nobody will hold their breath waiting for it. It is gonna be a long time. Most likely no response at all besides some often trotted out meaningless slogan.
On the other hand the PLP is the gift that keeps on giving to the tune of approaching $600,000 per day.
Premier is gutless. Period.
The premier is travelling the world don eein worry wif it
Doesn’t he normally avoid confrontations?
Bermuda has become a very scary place. Just 18 months after the election, the economy is going down, education is in crisis, the deficit has increased, our debt has increased, our taxes have increased, our take home pay had increased, the size and pay of our unsustainable bloated civil service had increased, our real estate making is tanking. Does anyone see a light at the end of the tunnel because I don’t. Time for a new Premier.
I agree with your observations on the fast paced decline of Bermuda, but disagree with getting rid of Burt as the fall back option will be the old guard who is primarily responsible for the rut we are in during their first reign. The last thing we need is the Burch/Burgess/Desilva/Brown cabal getting back into the upper ranks. Bermuda would truly be finished if that were to happen. Right now Burt is the best out of a bad bunch.
I think a lot of people were hoping to see Premier Caines by now. Shame he titty milked his credibility
Time for the rent a crowd to show some backbone over something real & demand that this government step down. Had the OBA been this bad they would have been long rioting in the streets.
Out of curiosity, how many paid PLP and OBA bloggers are on here commenting??????
All bloggers are paid cronies! And don’t think that the people who post here represent the island as they don’t