What I mean is that governments take holidays as a great opportunity to do rass! The reasons are fairly simple: they count on the reputation Belizeans have as lovers of holidays and what often seems to be the single-minded devotion to celebration and partying. Of course it’s a bit more complicated than that, but the analysis does have some merit, although it’s true that a large group of people, particularly teachers, justifiably find the Christmas holidays, the Easter vacation and the 30-day July vacation to be the only period where there is sufficient time for travel to visit relatives in other districts or relatives living abroad. Whatever the reason, governments realize that if they want to stay even a bit “under the radar” while pulling off some controversial move, these are the most favorable times because they are less likely to draw the concentrated fire of a population that’s largely fixated on personal things.
One of those things was obviously Government’s failed attempt to pawn off the 33-million-dollar albatross around its neck in the form of Universal Health Services, to Social Security. I’m not so sure that the timing here was the main concern. It’s quite possible that the pressure from the Ashcroft-owned Belize Bank, an institution that probably had a real concern with what was the status of a long overdue debt that Government at one point appeared to be disavowing, and a debt that was being challenged by the ACB in the Supreme Court as being illegal by any stretch of the imagination, was being ratcheted up to a level which forced GOB’s hand. Let’s face it, with elections a short time away, this is certainly not when the PUP wanted UHS to be in the headlines again.
Be that as it may, there are other little games going on in Belmopan. One of those games involves the attempt by the characters that work at the Ministry of Education to try to amend the Education Rules of 2000, the set of rules by which education is run in Belize, in ways designed to give politicians the absolute power to manipulate the system. Here’s the game. The Education Rules of 2000 defines the term “Managing authority” as follows: “the person or committee appointed in accordance with Section 14 of this Act.” A document has now been circulated entitled, “Draft Education Rules for 2008.” The attached Memorandum for the Ministry dated December 7 advises the recipients to review the document and submit their “observations/recommendations for corrections or amendments to the Chief Education Officer no later than January 11th 2008.” It then advises the stakeholders that a 2-day Rules Review seminar will be held on January 17th-18th. While MoE asks for “cooperation,” it definitely does not indicate whether those “observations/recommendations for corrections or amendments” will be taken seriously. In fact, that memo gives the distinct impression that the implementation of these rules is already a “fait accompli.” Now where have I seen that before? That’s right! This is the way this PUP appointed Ministry of Education does business!
The new rules define “Managing authority” the same way as the old, at least in the preliminary section which defines the meaning of the terms that are used. But then on page 31 in the section entitled: “MANAGING AUTHORITIES (Rule 31),” the new rules state the following: (3) “In the case of a Government School the Ministry of Education shall be its Managing Authority.” Bingo! Of course the rest of the new rules in regards to administration are basically unchanged. In the section, “Duties of Managing Authorities,” section (4) states: “Managing authorities shall be the main channel of communication between the Ministry of Education and schools or institutions….”
So, the Ministry of Education shall be the main channel of communication with itself? That’s what it says, friend! It’s painfully obvious that there was precious little thought put into this change; the rest of the rules in this section remain basically the same as those of 2000, and therefore they provide an amusing exercise in statements that no longer make much sense. All they apparently wanted to do was to have a rule that they could point to so that they would have complete control over every aspect of every Government school’s administration – hiring, firing, discipline, policy, you name it they want to control it. Okay, now why are they so eager to pull off something like this?
Well, I guess I’m part of the reason for some of their anxiety. Maybe we could call it “the Frankie Rhys/E.P. Yorke rule.” You see, in 2005 I began writing for Amandala and some of the people in the Ministry started hinting to Mr. Rodrick Cardinez, the principal of Edward P. Yorke High School, that they would really like him to order me to stop writing my articles and, if I refused, to try to find some pretext to fire me! Mr. Cardinez, to his everlasting credit, refused to do their dirty work for them. His position was that as long as a teacher’s activities out of school are constitutional and legal, then those activities are none of his business! That’s the way it should be!
Failing that one, the Ministry of Education tried to forcibly retire me and to try to deny me my summer pay, even though the rules state that any teacher who teaches for an entire school year, 180 days, is entitled to that pay unless he or she is already collecting a pension from GOB, which I don’t have. When they realized that this was not going to be a walkover; that the BNTU was going to fight them tooth and nail, that Kremandala was prepared to go to the mat too, and the lawsuit was likely to become a big dollar loss, the attempt was quietly dropped because they knew that they didn’t have a legal leg to stand on, and the Judiciary was no longer as easy to manipulate as it once was. Of course, if that new rule had been there, they would have had more ammo, although I don’t know if with all the obvious contradictions in the new rules that the change creates, it would have helped them much.
The other situation that made them try to pull this off was the attempt that MoE made to micromanage our disciplinary policy at Edward P. Yorke High School for what appeared to many observers to be solely for perceived political gain. They found a united front among administration and faculty, as well as a Board of Management, a board of reputable and well-known citizens that may well have publicly resigned in protest. They forced their decision through anyhow, and some board members did leave.
The word was out from then as to what their move was going to be. It appears that they feel that if they can call themselves the “legitimate” Managing Authority of all Government schools, they can hire party loyalists, many of whom probably couldn’t teach their way out of a wet paper bag, and they can fire any teacher who actually thinks that he or she has a constitutional right to free expression! That’s what they appear to care about – taking care of sycophants and victimizing independent thinkers. Screw the kind of education the kids are getting. They don’t seem to have the real interest of the kids at heart at all.
Today is December 14th. – the day almost every school in Belize closed. Schools won’t reopen until January 7th, 2008. The next three weeks will be weeks of partying and associating with family. The “deadline” for comments is January 11th, right at the end of the first week of classes. The Ministry seems to be gambling that they can blow this one by everybody before they realize what happened! They can’t! There are enough of us out here who are wise to their game and who don’t mind sacrificing some personal time for their country!
I get no personal benefit from taking on this issue. I will be 60 years old next year, and the rules provide that anyone age 60 and above must get the personal permission of the Minister of Education to continue teaching. I wouldn’t expect to get that permission from the Minister of Education even if the Opposition UDP wins the election. If we want to claim to be a “democracy,” we need to get “Minister’s permission” out of our law books! Neither major party likes people who are straight up; people who stand up for what they believe. That’s not the path to “success” in today’s Belize. Besides, I have other plans. Music is where I’m going. It’s not like there’s a lot of time to spare anymore. There never is, but it becomes more evident with increasing age.
I challenge the UDP. If you didn’t know this was going on, you do know now! Take a public position in opposition to this move. If you don’t, it becomes more clear that real change is not on your agenda, regardless of the campaign rhetoric.