Minister accused of showing ‘contempt’ for consultation
Parents and teachers of St George’s Preparatory School have accused Diallo Rabain, the Minister of Education, of “prejudice” against the school and showing “contempt” for consultation.
The school’s Parent Teacher Association issued a statement today after footage of a conference call between Mr Rabain and education officials was released on social media.
In the clip, which was recorded last year, Mr Rabain told Philip Butterfield, the co-chairman of the education governance committee: “Be wary of St George’s Prep, right?”
Mr Rabain also said that he refused to provide the PTA with research that recommended that the school should be earmarked for closure as part of a massive shake-up of the education system.
Mr Butterfield replied that the PTA “aren’t going to be in the mix” when school policies are finalised.
The One Bermuda Alliance said the minister should quit over the comments and yesterday the PTA said that the clip demonstrated that it was being deliberately shut out of the education reform process.
A PTA spokesman added that other schools had contacted the PTA to express their “disgust” at the comments.
The spokesman added: “The minister has attempted to minimise and dismiss his deeply concerning remarks by stating that they were taken out of context.
‘Regardless of the context, the minister’s comments betray his prejudice towards our school and his contempt for true parent consultation, which should be alarming to all school communities.
“Furthermore, this recording has come to light in the wake of the eastern primary schools being presented a profoundly disruptive transition plan that has inflamed concerns and further undermined confidence in primary school reform.
“Our numerous concerns include the fact that the board of Whitney Institute has not yet agreed to their site being used to house the three eastern primary schools.
“The St George’s Prep PTA fully acknowledges the need for education reform. However, the promise of parents being partners in the process of reimagining our children’s education has been broken.
“The minister’s comments severely undermine his credibility, as well as that of the newly created governance committee, and raises questions about whether the members of that committee have the integrity to participate in any aspect of Bermuda’s school redesign process.”
In an interview this week, Mr Rabain said there was “no intention from any of us to withhold any information and we have not withheld any information that has been asked for …”
He added: “I am saying it was taken out of context. After listening to it I can see how it can be interpreted the way it is and so I want to take this time to apologise for the confusion and misunderstanding that the clip has done.”
The PTA said that it will be co-hosting a meeting with West End Warriors — the pressure group formed to block the planned closure of West End Primary School in Sandys — at 6.30pm tomorrow.
The spokesman said: “We are calling on PTA representatives of any concerned school to attend this meeting. The aim of this meeting is to share our concerns and form a collective voice.”
Interested PTA representatives are asked to e-mail ourschoolsbermuda@gmail.com to confirm their attendance and receive the location of the meeting.
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