Bogue, St Elizabeth – The Ministry of Education is struggling to resolve a quarrel over staff appointments at the Bogue All-Age School in this small farming district of north-east St Elizabeth, which yesterday triggered a demonstration by parents and influenced the great majority to keep their children from school.

Junior Minister Senator Noel Monteith, who spent hours on a fact-finding mission at the school, assured disgruntled parents in mid-afternoon that he would be scheduling a meeting “at the earliest possible date” in a bid to resolve the issue. In the meantime, he told the scores of reluctant parents that they should send their children to school.

The parents are protesting the decision of the Ministry of Education in December to terminate the employment of veteran teacher Junior Coley, whom they say had in short order replaced disorder with discipline since taking up a teaching position in September. They are also unhappy that Coley, who had applied for the post of principal – made vacant with the departure on retirement leave last July of Hyacinth Dodd – was overlooked.

Instead, the Ministry of Education’s Teachers Services Commission, in collaboration with the school board, opted for Pauline McCalla, who had her first day at the school yesterday but whom Bogue residents described as an outsider.

Monteith sought to make clear yesterday that the appointment of the new principal meant that Coley’s wife, Patricia Coley, who had acted in the post for three months, had reverted to her substantive post as a senior teacher. That meant, he said, that there was no longer space on the school’s staff establishment for her husband, whom “the records show” was acting in a “temporary” position.

But the outspoken 55-year-old Coley, a resident and farmer in Bogue, who previously held a teaching job in 2004, said yesterday that when he was offered the job at Bogue All-Age last September, he was assured that his position was permanent. In fact, he claimed yesterday that he was encouraged to apply for the post of principal by the chairman of the school board, while his wife, who was acting in the post, was discouraged. The thinking then, according to Coley, was that the school needed a strong male principal to restore discipline.

Parents told journalists that they were particularly angry at the treatment of Coley because he had been extremely successful in restoring order and in helping slow learners, some of whom had only just started to read since his intervention.

“We want a man teacher,” said Nancy Black. “Since Mr Coley come here the children learning. Even if he is not the principal we need him to stay in the school. He is a good teacher, we respect him.”

Another mother, Joan Berlin, told the Observer that before Coley’s arrival, many of the boys especially, stayed away from school. “Dem gone a bird bush and all kind of things, instead of school,” she said.

Monteith told journalists that while he was still gathering information, there appeared to be a “disconnect” between the parents who perceived that the school had improved substantially with Coley’s presence and the process of staff appointments.

While he could not take a position without having all “the facts”, Monteith said he noted assertions by the parents that much of the problem had flowed from a dysfunctional school board that did not reflect their interests.

Noting that he arrived in Bogue yesterday at “short notice”, Monteith said he was hampered by the absence of the chairman of the school board and the education officer.

Both, as well as the head of the Parent Teachers Association, a representative from the Jamaica Teachers Association and Coley would be required to be at the meeting he would arrange, he said.

Angry parents protested angrily at first, shouting “no, no, no” when told by Monteith that they should return their children to school pending the completion of the process he has set in train. But after several minutes of cajoling by the junior minister, the large crowd appeared to be more receptive.

Monteith’s presence in Bogue followed the abortion of a meeting between education officials, teachers and parents at the school last Friday after quarrels broke out. Then, angry parents locked the school gate for over two hours.