Education Minister, Petter Saint Jean, has announced that within a week, a board of Governors for the Dominica State College (DSC) will be in place.
He was speaking in response to a letter written by Social Worker, Francis Joseph, to him expressing grave concerns over the lack of a functioning board at the DSC and seeking clarification on the matter.
He said the matter is in contravention of Section 7 of the 2002 Dominica State College ACT 4 which makes reference to a number of issues, including the welfare of staff and students, policies for the college, financing for the institution, among others.
But Saint Jean said everything is in place to for a board to be installed.
“The names have been adopted by the cabinet of Dominica,” he said on Talking Point on state-own DBS Radio on Monday. “So the cabinet has taken a decision on that, it must go to cabinet, and within the coming the week the board will be in place, so we have put all systems in place.”
However, the Education Minister was not pleased in the manner in which the letter was distributed to the media and has questioned Joseph’s motive.
“Why should a gentleman write to the minister script dated, the date on the letter: 3rd June 2015, but before the 3rd, the document was discussed on a talk show program…because it was CC’d to all media houses. I ask, what was his objective?” Saint Jean said.
He added, “If you write to the minister, when you write to the minister you expect to get a response, but I think that there were ulterior motives … if the intentions were honest, if the intentions were good, then the minister would have been given an opportunity to respond. Failing to respond then the media would have been alerted.”
Peeping Tom and others like u should stop peeping and open your eyes then you will see and understand better. Been a good citizen and look out for the children in your area. It is about time u and others wake up. God help you all.
No why would Cabinet have to approve of a board,
this board is going to be a Political board.
The minister was forced to take action on the letter
They had no intentions to put a board in place
it took 11 months
My God have mercy
Christ have mercy
the board will be short lived
Elections coming End of August
I hope the new board will investigate why the nursing lectures have not been paid for courses taught summer 2014…the country really nice boy
What very good news that the Dominica State College is to have a properly constituted Board. FIrst on the Agenda should be introducing a proper protocol for investigating allegations of inappropriate behaviour at the college. It is important that students feel safe to say “no” and to report sexual advances by faculty, administration, security or other students. No one should ask for or offer sexual favours in return for opportunities or credits. Faculty should not have sexual relationships with students it is unethical and, according to the Chief Education Officer, there should be a zero tolerance policy implemented.
Get this right, Tina. the Board does NOT investigate such matters. Temper your exuberance with reason and common sense.
Tina, is so right the Board has a right to protect its students and any complain presented to it. They have that obligation to initiate a meeting involving the President and other interest groups.
The Board is mandated to initiate an inquiry to any matter affecting the Colleges` interest and security and also can suspend, dismiss. severe contract of the President, any President.
Mr. Minister just do what you supposed to do. You should be thanking Mr. Joseph, for bringing to your attention something which should have been in place a long time ago.
The matter of a Board of Governors for the DSC is a public and nor private issue..So in that respect Mr Francis Joesph’s action was fully within his right as a concerned citizen to make the matter public..In any event the Minister’s decision now to put things right is much more important than any motive that Minister St Jean may speculatively wish to pin unto Mr Joseph.. If Mr St Jean was attending to his stewardship responsibilities for the DSC there would then not be any reason for Mr Joseph’s actions.. So Mr St Jean and others in the DLP administration please do the work that you were elected to do and don’t consider these matters are private between two or a few persons,, There seems to be a growing tendency for DLP administration to think that the decisions by the Government or failures are their private preserve and hence they wish to violate the principle of transparency upon which our democracy should stand
Of course, Clayton, you would see no wrong with Joseph’s behaviour but you would then speak of “democracy” and “transparency” and probably “integrity,” huh? When does your incessant nonsensical rabbling stop and you begin to actually sound like a man who went to school? Frankly, even if Mr. St. Jean had been “attending to his stewardship responsibilities for the DSC” you and Mr, Joseph and others of your ilk would still have found something enormously insignificant to say because this is how you remain relevant: Sound sensible while saying something irrelevant or silly and pray that the semi-literates that abound in Dominica will pay attention. I listened to Mr. Joseph and like Dr. Peters, i was lost. I wondered what was the connection that he was attempting between the Board and child abuse. Enough, with your idiocy. Enough with your pathetic and ceaseless attempts at political campaigning.
Peeping Tom: Open your eyes, use both eyes …stop peeping, Get off the closet and come back to society our community to see the reality of the child abuse situation. Enough said. I applaud Joseph, Tina and Clayton.
Joseph has presented us comparative and case studies of other countries and its is already here in Dominica. Look at the message, do not get at the messengers.
It is called transparency Mr. St. Jean. Whether you feel his intentions/motives were good or bad he got a response from you as to what is happening. He is being a responsible citizen. Your responsibility as minister is to make sure systems are in place and working efficiently and when they don’t citizens have to call you out. It is also your responsible as SERVANT if the public to give accountability.
I wrote to another Minister several months ago re a similar public interest issue and to date there has been no acknowledgement far less a reply.I am aware that the Minister received the letter too.
So tell St Jean that his paranoia of seeing ulterior motives and agendas everywhere may not be founded and that we have learnt that the only way issues get addressed( like Salisbury) by this incompetent administration is to go public.
So lacking in depth and substance!!!!!
His motive Mr. Pseudo- Minister is to ensure this very response.
We all know you guys are so disrespectful that any correspondence with you has to be brought into the public domain for it to be effectual.
Board, Wood or Plank all sounds the same to me..
More potos/ opportunists/parasites will fight to be on this new board all like those ambassadors ABC DEF G…………………..
AS Moine meme so effectiverly stated it. These guy are so full of it .It took Mr.Francis Josep to make em dance? lol How could we D/cans vote for such out of touch jokers they belong in parks of cards
“If you write to the minister, when you write to the minister…” Interestingly, Psychologists say that referring to yourself in the third person creates distance between “I” and “he”. And this is usually done when you have an exaggerated view of how great you are, so you are trying to create distance and make yourself even bigger. They believe it is a way to enlarge yourself to fit a role you did not expect. Please refer to the book ” Identifying and Understanding the Narcissistic Personality” written by a psychologist at Harvard Medical School.
mister st jean it is good that people expose the corruption and nastiness that exist in the governance of the county. mr minister for an entire year you didnt know that there was no board at the state college?
at least students have some sort of avenue to make complaints now whether it be sexual abuse, financial issues or whatever. But the problem still exists that what if the board is made up of mano, kamala, simeon, alick, ambassador,and probabaly mammy
You see what happens in this country? unless there is a protest or an outcry from concern citizens absolutely nothing gets done. What a way to manage the development of the state. The most efficient one
A BOARD OF ILL MINDED LABORITES.
Sir, maybe you are correct as regards the writer’s motive but would the country have known, without this communique, that the DSC was without a Board? I doubt. The government, of which you are a part, takes too long and is too secretive on matters that all concern the nation. Please be proactive and avoid unnecessary speculations. Anyhow, I am happy that the Board will soon be in place.
HOTEP!
This seems like an adhoc decision with little fore-planning.
Given how much they’ve been criticized for not having a board in place, it seems unfair now to criticize them for putting one in place quickly. Besides, given that there aren’t that many people qualified to serve on such a board, it really shouldn’t take that long to implement once the decision is made to move forward with it.
Denizen Forrester where have you been? U just show up when U please and chat phat Remeer passport or not U remain a denizen so hold ur corner partner.
If someone with any actual substance has a disagreement, I’d listen.
There aren’t many people qualified? Huh? What exactly do you mean?
That’s a reasonable question, Just Me. I was just thinking that if you’re going to sit on a college governing board, you should probably have experience with higher education administration, an advanced degree (preferably a doctorate), etc. I wouldn’t think that it would take that long to go through everyone like that in the country to find those who are both suitable and interested.
But I don’t know what their process is, I was just basing that on how I’d go about it.
Petter you were got with your pants down.
Haha, I like that Grell, caught with his pants down and no cojones in sight!