Teachers go beyond the call of duty to contribute to the development of the nation’s children and they should not be unduly criticized.
This was the message coming from President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Pedro Shepherd as he hit back at criticisms leveled against teachers, during an interview with Barbados TODAY.
Pedro Shepherd
Shepherd stated that he was aware of allegations that some educators who vented their grievances did not want to teach.
However, Shepherd said teachers made a significant contribution to society and argued that teachers faced many challenges that made it difficult for them to be effective in carrying out their mandate.
“I don’t know of any teachers in Barbados, in the Caribbean or anywhere in the world for that matter that don’t want to teach.
“There are teachers, like anybody else in other professions who may not function to the optimum. But I don’t know of a teacher who does not want to teach,” he stressed.
The BUT boss also said it was important for the public to understand how much teachers were being pressured, and were forced to cope with the negative side effects of a changing society.
“We now have students who cannot be disciplined. When I say discipline I am not speaking about corporal punishment, but children who cannot be spoken to by teachers because they say their parents don’t speak to them or speak to them in that manner.
“There are students who dress how they want to because that is how they dress at home or how their parents dress them,” he said.