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Cuban & Haitian Teachers Join Bahamas Public School System

By Perry Scavella

Education Minister Alfred Sears said Monday the government makes "no apologises" for recruiting foreign educators to teach in the public school system.

The government has recruited 14 Cubans and two Haitian educators due to what officials say is the lack of sufficient teachers in the public school system.

Minister Sears said the public education system was challenged to find suitable teachers in subject areas like special education, mathematics, physics, physical education, Spanish and French.

He said these areas of learning are critical to the national development of the country.

"We have to not be blinded by the ideological arguments of any quarter. We must be unapologetically committed to the national development of our people," Minister Sears said during a special orientation for the recruits at Uriah McPhee Primary School on Kemp Road.

"We recruit teachers from throughout Latin America, and other parts of the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and we do not apologise to anyone that we also recruit teachers from our neighbours, that is the Republic of Haiti and the Republic of Cuba."

The recruits are expected to start teaching as soon as today or Wednesday. Six of the Cubans are expected to remain in New Providence while the others are expected to be sent to Andros, Acklins, San Salvador, Abaco, Exuma, and Mayaguana. The Haitian educators are expected to remain in New Providence.

Ida Poitier-Turnquest, president of the Bahamas Union of Teachers, told the recruits that they were automatically members of the union.

"No matter where they?re from you must be members of the Bahamas Union of Teachers. They have no choice," she said.

She told the recruits that if they should experience any problems within the system the union was the path to solving any major issue.

In this respect, she gave the recruits the union?s telephone number along with a pen and a pad in a small plastic bag. She said all teachers received these packages at the beginning of the school year.

Additionally, Felix Wilson, Cuban?s ambassador to The Bahamas, said Cuba?s policy for 47 years was to assist countries in need. During this period, he added that Cuba has developed human resources in the areas of health, education, science, and technology, but lacks material resources to provide to countries in need.

"We have expressed from the very beginning the interest of our country is to pay back the solidarity to the world by offering them what we have and what we have is human resources," he said.

The public school system has educators from 13 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and countries in the Caribbean region.

Howard Newbold, acting director of school management, said 65 percent of the teachers in The Bahamas are Bahamians while 35 percent are foreigners.

Foreign teachers must have an adequate command and understanding of the English language; possess both the academic and professional requirements for teaching; exhibit adequate knowledge and skills in the pedagogy; and possess professional experience.