Minister of Education Responds to Calls for Resignation over Controversial Drill at Springer Memorial Secondary School

By Anesta Henry

Minister of Education Kay McConney has brushed aside calls for her and Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer- Bradshaw to resign over the controversial drill at the Springer Memorial Secondary School on Wednesday.

Following Friday’s launch of the ministry’s inaugural Future Forward Innovation Challenge at Pelican Village, when asked by reporters to respond to the calls from the Democratic Labour Party and others for the top education officials to step down, she said people were free to have their opinions and perceptions.

“I think what is important is for us to focus on purpose and not perception, and there will always be people having their own perceptions, and that is the beauty of living in a free country where people can say and do what they like.

“But I think we have right-thinking Barbadians who are able to understand how these things work and understand that if we take an approach where when a school or a principal or someone makes a mistake, that we then seek to be able to use the opportunity to get better, build their capacity. I think that is where we really need to focus,” McConney said.

On Thursday, Tyra Trotman, chairperson of the Young Democrats which is the DLP’s youth arm, urged parents to sue the Mia Mottley administration over the incident that left students traumatised, and also called on the Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw and Minister McConney to resign.

At the same time, Archer-Bradshaw and Springer Memorial Secondary School principal Cheryl Gill apologised for what happened at the all-girls school and gave the assurance that in the future, all relevant protocols would be followed.

On Friday, McConney reiterated that in the future, the Ministry would provide guidelines for how schools should execute drills.

“I think the nature of drills is changing, and we have to understand that the old-time way in which you did a fire drill might not be the same way you do other types of drills. So we have to really educate and provide the right kind of guidance so that we are able to mitigate the risk to children as well as to the entire community,” she said.

“Something like this would obviously impact everyone. So I think the school principal identified that lessons were learnt, the Chief Education Officer also indicated what is going to be done, and I can say to you that it is an opportunity for us to provide the right kind of education and the right kind of guidance as to how we go about doing this effectively,” the education minister added.

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