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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Collecting pay under false pretence</SPAN>
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Wednesday, January 10, 2007
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>Three reports in yesterday's edition of the Observer give us serious cause for concern about how we do or don't do things in this country. What each story has in common with the other is the stark fact that the problems being experienced could so easily have been avoided with just a little forward planning, or with people doing their work.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Let's start with the dust nuisance on South Camp Road in Kingston which forced some schools to send home students on the first day of the Easter term. This is preposterous.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Heavy dust and a lack of water due to the construction work being done for the ICC Cricket World Cup, was given as the reason for the suspension of classes at schools near Sabina Park.
If Alpha Primary principal, Phyllis Anderson is to be believed, and we have no reason to doubt her, since the road work started last term, the students were being severely affected by the dust from drilling being done by workmen using heavy equipment along the sidewalk at the entrance to the school.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"The dust is damaging to their health, and at times it is unbearable," Anderson is quoted as saying, adding that several open trenches along the sidewalks were also posing a danger to the students.
It's a clear case that the people who were supposed to deal with this matter have not. Do we care so little about the children, the future of our country? Are we to believe that it is not possible to protect our young ones while we undergo development?<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the second incident, parents of children at Bogue All-Age School in St Elizabeth kept their wards at home on Monday to protest against the decision of the Ministry of Education in December to terminate the employment of veteran teacher Junior Coley.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The parents contend that in short order, Mr Coley replaced disorder with discipline and they are unhappy that he has been overlooked for the job of principal, in favour of Ms Pauline McCalla, who had her first day at the school yesterday.<P class=StoryText align=justify>This is very untidy indeed. We take no consolation from Senator Noel Monteith who belatedly spent hours at the school assuring the disgruntled parents that he would be scheduling a meeting "at the earliest possible date" to resolve the issue.<P class=StoryText align=justify>This troublesome matter has been on the cards from last year. Why did the education ministry wait until the opening of school to attempt to resolve the matter?<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the third story, we are being assured that six Vertical Gel Electrophoresis (VGE) machines that have been sitting at the Kingston Wharves since last month waiting to be cleared, should shortly be in the hands of officials at the DNA department of the Government Forensic Laboratory.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The new equipment was acquired at a cost of US$10,000 and will replace six machines that had broken down under the overwhelming demands for DNA test results.
Had there been no problem over the identification of bodies believed to be that of the Lyns of Mandeville, it is safe to say that the equipment would have continued to sit on the wharves.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Obviously, we cannot continue this way as a nation. This crisis management approach must stop. We have to get to the point where we stop paying people who are collecting pay under false pretence, because they are not doing what they were employed to do.
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Wednesday, January 10, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>Three reports in yesterday's edition of the Observer give us serious cause for concern about how we do or don't do things in this country. What each story has in common with the other is the stark fact that the problems being experienced could so easily have been avoided with just a little forward planning, or with people doing their work.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Let's start with the dust nuisance on South Camp Road in Kingston which forced some schools to send home students on the first day of the Easter term. This is preposterous.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Heavy dust and a lack of water due to the construction work being done for the ICC Cricket World Cup, was given as the reason for the suspension of classes at schools near Sabina Park.
If Alpha Primary principal, Phyllis Anderson is to be believed, and we have no reason to doubt her, since the road work started last term, the students were being severely affected by the dust from drilling being done by workmen using heavy equipment along the sidewalk at the entrance to the school.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"The dust is damaging to their health, and at times it is unbearable," Anderson is quoted as saying, adding that several open trenches along the sidewalks were also posing a danger to the students.
It's a clear case that the people who were supposed to deal with this matter have not. Do we care so little about the children, the future of our country? Are we to believe that it is not possible to protect our young ones while we undergo development?<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the second incident, parents of children at Bogue All-Age School in St Elizabeth kept their wards at home on Monday to protest against the decision of the Ministry of Education in December to terminate the employment of veteran teacher Junior Coley.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The parents contend that in short order, Mr Coley replaced disorder with discipline and they are unhappy that he has been overlooked for the job of principal, in favour of Ms Pauline McCalla, who had her first day at the school yesterday.<P class=StoryText align=justify>This is very untidy indeed. We take no consolation from Senator Noel Monteith who belatedly spent hours at the school assuring the disgruntled parents that he would be scheduling a meeting "at the earliest possible date" to resolve the issue.<P class=StoryText align=justify>This troublesome matter has been on the cards from last year. Why did the education ministry wait until the opening of school to attempt to resolve the matter?<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the third story, we are being assured that six Vertical Gel Electrophoresis (VGE) machines that have been sitting at the Kingston Wharves since last month waiting to be cleared, should shortly be in the hands of officials at the DNA department of the Government Forensic Laboratory.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The new equipment was acquired at a cost of US$10,000 and will replace six machines that had broken down under the overwhelming demands for DNA test results.
Had there been no problem over the identification of bodies believed to be that of the Lyns of Mandeville, it is safe to say that the equipment would have continued to sit on the wharves.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Obviously, we cannot continue this way as a nation. This crisis management approach must stop. We have to get to the point where we stop paying people who are collecting pay under false pretence, because they are not doing what they were employed to do.