And today at the CARILED event, we got a chance to speak to the Minister of Educaiton. He's in the news because yesterday there were two high school strikes - one in Orange Walk and the other in Belmopan.
There's not much the ministry can do about the one in Belmopan since the Baptist School Management first has to deal with it - but Orange Walk Tehcnical is a government High School - so it falls directly in the Ministry's hands.
Faber urged all parties to be patient:
Hon. Patrick Faber - Minister of Education
"We continue to try to ask the persons who are involved - the stakeholders - to allow the process to work, and I think that this is still happening. Those whoever did whatever was done yesterday, in terms of the walkout, are clearly not looking at that and giving the process a chance to work. But, by and large, that's the position of the Ministry. We asked the teachers, on my visit the last time, to be patient, to have us properly constitute the Board that would deal with the issues, and I believe that this is being done. You saw yesterday that our local ministry officials on ground in Orange Walk were there, meeting the teachers, and it's simply a matter of allowing the process to work. I'll tell you now that there were requests coming from the Board, after that Board was properly constituted, for us to us to send in auditors from the Ministry. And the Ministry did send in an audit team. We're waiting the results of that. I think that the concluded their business at the end of last week. I'm told that they were finishing up yesterday. I have not seen the results of that audit report. This is what we've been saying, if it is, because those are some of allegations that parents and students are make. And if it is the case, then we will find out. But people have to give us a chance to look into what is going on, to give an honest assessment, and if it is that this what we find, then we will say so. But until then, we can't make such allegations; we won't act in haste just to satisfy emotions. We want to make sure that things are done properly. No one can accuse - in fact the Board met, I believe last week, up until midnight on one night. So, no one can accuse the managing authority of not working. And in the meantime, we appeal to all the stakeholders - the students, parents, and the teachers - to try to keep as normal an environment as possible so that this kind of learning that you are talking about can continue."
Classes went on as normal at Orange Walk Technical and Belmopan Baptist today.
The Board of Orange Walk Technical will meet again tomorrow and a statement is expected after that.
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