THE ROW WITH BELINDA AND JEFF

It was most remarkable.  A letter was released in the public domain signed by the Minister of Education Jeff Lloyd and addressed to Elma Garraway, the  Chair of the National Advisory Council on Education to say that he will no longer be speaking to Belinda Wilson, the President of the Bahamas Union Of Teachers, until she issues an irrevocable letter of apology to him.  The  Minister claimed that in various exchanges and particularly one on What’s App, the Union President was disrespectful.  In one exchange she said in response to him: “Fuck y’all”.  The Tribune carried a headline with the picture of the two people saying: : I’m not talking to you.”  This at a time when the President of the Union had teachers engaged in industrial action as school is set to open physically on 5 October 2020.  This also occurs when the Union President is accusing the Ministry of Education of negligence for ordering tablets for the virtual classroom for students and teachers that are incompatible with the Zoom platform.  This seems like a major flaw. It all seemed a little silly. However,  we are not surprised.  Jeffery Lloyd has a sense of  moral rectitude which often gets him in trouble. He  has not made the transition from Catholic Deacon to Minister. Belinda Wilson is just troublesome and is always stirring up crap. That is her nature. She is loose with her language and in management of the Union’s business. She is also nursing the pain from being rejected by the Government for the job of Director of Education. So she is pouting and nitpicking from the sidelines. In the meantime, the children suffer.