'Teachers' Award was a Mess' - Teachers speak
That was Minister for Education and Culture Honourable Myron V. Walwyn as he commenced his address to teachers and the annual Teachers’ Award ceremony held at the Cutlass Towers, Water Front Drive, Road Town on Saturday March 15, 2014.
The event was one that paid worthy honour to teachers and schools of the Territory but the venue and the challenges brought to bear were far beyond one’s expectations. In the first instance upon entering the building via the elevator to the 5th floor, the welcome was one of a ‘red carpet’ nature that seemed promising to a great night onwards, but that was not so.
Make-up was all oily and running down the faces of some due to the heat in the building. Even on the roof patio covered with poorly decorated tents, it was sweltering. Many were overheard making statements like, “I really should not have come here tonight, I said I wasn’t coming but changed my mind,” “This is cheap and certainly not good,” “This is a mess,” “Of all the places in this Territory why they had to come here? It can’t hold all the teachers and this place is not fitting,” just to mention a few.
Making the ceremony even worse as the Hon Minister took to the microphone the facility was hit with constant power failures. “They going say this is VIP sabotage,” muttered a member of the audience. The situation was to the extent of one of the awardees, Mr Lyn Weekes, a teacher at the Bregado Flax Educational Institute collapsing in the height of things.
Further, the caterer, while they were complimented for a fairly good job at the cocktail style delicacies were forced to put up with the extreme circumstance of not having any running water in the building and not even a sink area as is necessary in food handling.
The 2013 teachers/educators award ceremony had come in for serious criticism as some $100K was spent for its gala execution. Last night while many agreed that they wanted the return of 2013 style event, they said that it does not have to cost 100K. “It was well done last year, I would love it that way again next year but I am very sure that it does not have cost no way near $100K, that was over the top and I stand by that,” said a senior educator who did not want to have her name mentioned.
Some teachers boycotted the event
Several teachers who spoke with Virgin Islands News Online said that they deliberately boycotted the event having learnt of the venue and the conditions that were set. “We were not prepared to go there and stand all night in heels for no cocktail ceremony,” one said.
The teacher said she felt that because of the harsh condemnations the 2013 award received for it $100K budget the Ministry went ‘overboard’ in trying to scale down. “They had to scale it down but to that level! No way. What happen to Maria’s By the Sea? What happening to Moorings? What happen to several other locations in Tortola that would have been comfortable and not cost anywhere close to $100k? What they did there was nothing but an insult to teachers and pure mess,” stressed the teacher.
Another said that dedicating some monies towards fulfilling some needs of the school would have been the greatest award for them. “How you think we feel going to a fancy ceremony where thousands of dollars is spent, we go home, go to the toilet and it’s just a memory thereafter,” said the male senior teacher.
He said that the Ministry should consider an incentive development programme where the schools to be awarded get a certain amount of cash that goes towards providing needs of the school and the plaques of awards can be given at special assembly at each school.
“You crying over and over in [the House of Assembly], on the TV, at every given function about the sad state of finances in the Territory and yet ideas for wise spending are being thrown under the rug,” added the teacher.
The teachers generally felt that honouring their dedication and work towards nation building is not a bad thing. “In fact it encourages us to keep on keeping on,” said the teacher but he noted that wisdom should be applied. “To me what they did to us there was to score personal political talks. People lambaste them for spending $100K so in arrogance they cut their nose and spoil their faces and spent$1K.”
Police stop music early – no record of noise disturbance in police records
A check with the Police Public Relations Department of the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) revealed that there were no records of complaints of noise nuisance emanating from the music at the Cutlass Towers as the award ceremony was in progress.
However the DJ of the night Mr Craig A. Lake confirmed with this news site that he was made to stop the music before midnight. This was in distaste to those teachers who chose to make the best of a bad situation and have some fun partying together.
“That was a plus that they gave us music. We cannot go to the clubs here because we would be bracing with our students. We don’t have any place or occasion to socialize as professionals in the BVI,” said a senior educator.
As also explained by Mr Lake sometime after 10:00 pm the police ordered that the volume be lowered which was done yet less than an hour after they returned and insisted that the music be completely cut because the complaints were too many. “They asked me up to what time I was going to play and I told them about midnight but yet I had to turn off on those big people after 11,” said the DJ.
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