Parents meet Education Ministry officials in emergency meeting at schoolBy Ceola WilsonClose to 60 disgruntled parents turned out last night at Purvis Primary School to air their views against the loss of 12 school teachers when the new school begins in September.The emergency meeting was called by the school’s Parent Teachers Association after word that a number of “effective qualified teachers” would be moved to other schools because their “skills are needed elsewhere”.Parents wishing to remain anonymous contacted this newspaper for the meeting to be covered by the media. But the media was asked to leave the meeting because “we were not officially invited”.Outside, disgruntled parents were heard complaining about the move. One parent said: “My concerns are that there are too many changes all at once.”With a family of Purvis School alumni dating back 50 years she said: “It’s bad enough the Ministry is moving the Principal but now we’re being told that the school will also be streaming class levels that will see up to 25 children in a classroom with one teacher, no decision on learning support, and a changed curriculum is just too much.”She continued: “The Principal leaving is fine with us, just like the teachers leaving due to expired contracts and the teachers scheduled to retire before the new school year; not to mention the teachers being promoted. We have no problem with personal professional growth,” she said.“But they have the control on whether or not they need to transfer the other teachers among all the changes and whether the changes are best for our children at this time.“Change in inevitable but change needs to make sense for it to be effective. The children may adjust however we will see the adverse effects of inconsistency and instability in the long run,” she said.Another parent with a second child now “caught in the system” said: “There are too many vital core teachers being moved at the same time.”And he questioned the “streamlining of three primary school level classes into one, “while will amount to more than 20 students in one class with one teacher”.“As far as I’m concerned everybody is upset because they also plan to move the very best of the core teachers to other schools because the Ministry wants their skills elsewhere.“Teachers like Ms Wade who has been teaching at Purvis School for 20 years. The bottom line is we’re losing 12 teachers and my opinion is that’s too many changes all at once,” he said.Another parent said: “I’m still concerned after hearing what I heard tonight because I have had problems with my daughter already.“She has special needs and I just feel that they listen but they don’t hear me.“I have had to fight every year for her to get a teacher’s assistant to help her; I never got it and had to go to the Principal and when that failed I wrote a letter to the Ministry of Education. I just feel something is not right and I’m not happy,” she said.Vice President of the school’s PTA Nicole Young said: “We called the emergency meeting to discuss the proposed changes that are due to go into effect this September.“A lot of parents are a bit upset because of the number of teachers moving. Ministry officials reiterated why the teachers are being moved but they haven’t’ said it will definitely happen; nor have they said it won’t.“Some of it has to do with the Department of Immigration, which is not the Ministry of Education, others have been promoted which is good change for that teacher’s progress which isn’t necessarily good for their students.“I now have to go back to the PTA and find out what exactly they would like to do moving forward.“This is something that definitely requires input from all of the parents involved, but I don’t think anybody here supports moving 12 teachers and the principal at one time; I don’t think any parent would.“I think we could have had a better turn out but I am pleased with those who did because they asked some good questions and put them to the appropriate people to answer them.“They may not have gotten the answers that they wanted and the Ministry has promised to get the answers to questions that went unanswered to us,” said Ms Young.Both Education Commissioner Wendy McDonnell and Dr Freddie Evans who is responsible for public schools in the western parishes were in attendance.A Ministry spokeswoman meanwhile “confirmed there are movements in the works for some of the teaching staff at Purvis Primary School”.“However this is due to a natural progression and to ensure that teaching and learning skills are spread throughout the education system.” she said.“As it stands, the Ministry confirms that there will be 11 teaching changes, at the school, and this is due to a variety or reasons, including transfers, retirements, expiration of contracts and promotions.The Ministry further noted that while there will be a “minor reduction of staff at the school” but issued assurances that “the continuity and quality of education delivery will be sustained, if not enhanced with the new staff changes.”She concluded: “The Ministry said that it is committed to working with the parents of Purvis Primary to ensure that the needs of the students — who remain the Ministry’s first priority — are adequately addressed.