WANTED!! More professional education managers in Region Nine

A REGION NINE official believes that improved professionalism will help stop the slide in
education standards in the sprawling Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo community.
Bertie Xavier who is the area’s Regional Vice Chairman who doubles as Head of the Education
Committee is worried that education officials in the interior community continue to turn a blind
eye to many issues affecting the learning sector.
“We have a situation here for a long-time, parents whose children were staying at the school
dorms were making some demands and requests, unfortunately while the education department
was in receipt of those letters nothing was done. This is unacceptable as education officials must
understand that without teachers and students there is no sector,” said Xavier, himself a trained
educator.
In other instances, correspondences from parents disappeared and administrators of the Annai
Secondary School where they lived were unconcerned and unmoved. So disdainful are decision-
makers at Annai Secondary that teachers documented grouses against the Head were snubbed.
This demonstrates the very high unprofessional approach of the Department (and) as the
Education Chairman, teachers and students must feel confident and comfortable in making
complaints and having their issues properly addressed.,” Xavier offered.
Ineffective management of the Regional Education Department has caused problems to snowball
and spiral out of control, he complained.

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He plans meeting with the new Regional Education Officer to help slay ‘monsters’ which have
been created in the Region and have talks with the HM of Annai Secondary to help regularise
issues.
“While I served at the Annai Secondary I saw this school missed out on tremendous
opportunities because the Headteacher felt that she didn’t like them so nobody else should. She
refused to support any initiative and or project that wasn’t her brainchild, so we had situations
where once it didn’t come from here, it went no way and is has greatly affected the school, it has
affected students in the past and continues to affect students presently. This institution is not
being managed like a school; it is being managed like someone’s personal business so if they
don’t like it well to hell with everybody else. The students in this Region are very talented and
we cannot have at one of our main secondary schools’ teachers, parents, students and even
members of the public so frustrated as this will certainly not bring any form of development,” he
argued.
Her toxic leadership: self-centredness, arrogance and belief that she has a monopoly on
information over the Region’s learning system has to end the Regional Vice Chairman said.
“Our Education Department must have officers who are proactive and want to see passionate
development in education not arrogant, self-centered individuals who are bent on stigmatising
and discriminating against persons because they share a different view. Education will grow in
Region Nine and those working in the sector must work along with its growth,” Xavier declared.
Before the outbreak of the deadly COVID 19 pandemic some 200 of the school’s 524
students stayed in the dorms of Annai Secondary.