Lessons at Kendal Primary suspended as teachers protest
MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Most of the students turned out for school this morning, according to principal of Kendal Primary and Infant School here, Maxcine Headley.
However, like many public schools across the island where teachers are on ‘sick out’ due to discontentment with wage negotiations with the Government, the day’s lessons were not on the agenda.
Headley told OBSERVER ONLINE that with the “go ahead” of the board chairman who was on the compound the students were eventually sent home.
“We had devotion. Parents who were still on the compound took their children and others were called,” she said.
Though the students had left, she said administrative work was in progress and the vice principal and the guidance counsellor were also in office.
It is now uncertain how many days the teachers will be out of the classroom but Headley said that administrative duties and some other planned activities are expected to continue at the institution she leads.
The launch of a Numeracy Room scheduled for Wednesday of this week with Opposition Spokesman on Education Ronald Thwaites as guest speaker is still on the agenda, she said.
Despite checks with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information Region 5, (Manchester and St Elizabeth), OBSERVER ONLINE was unable to ascertain what was happening at other schools in the parish.
Alicia Sutherland