The Dominica Association of Teachers (DAT) is gearing up to hold its 17th Biennial Convention next week.
The convention will take place at the Goodwill Parish Hall on April 3, from 8:30a.m.
President of the DAT Mervin Alexander will seek to be re-elected for a third consecutive term. The election will take place during the section portion of the convention.
“My tenure as president of the Dominica Association of Teachers had been challenging, nonetheless we were able to make some headway,” he said. “Among them, we were able to get the government to finally establish the positions of deputy principals, assistant principals, heads of department and senior qualified teachers at the government secondary schools.”
According to him, deputy principals and heads of department were selected by the principal of the school, and the teachers in those positions were given an allowance from the Ministry of Education.
“But now the schools are established and appointments are made by the Public Service Commission,” Alexander stated. “Also, after more than a decade of absence, we were able to revamp the Spelling Bee Competitions.”
He continued, “I wrote a proposal and sent it to various business places in Dominica and through Jays Bookstore, McMillian Publishing Company of England has fully sponsored the Spelling Bee Competition from 2022.”
Furthermore, he said the DAT continued its advocacy on the permanent appointment of principals, “and teachers and we are happy that a number of them have been appointed thus far.”
Alexander also indicated that the DAT received financial assistance from the Caribbean Union of Teachers to assist teachers pursuing higher education.
“Two of our teachers have so far benefited,” he revealed.
Meanwhile, Alexander called for more unity among teachers across the island.
“We would like to see more unity among teachers,” he said. “We recognize that they are all over the island, therefore we are looking to form zonal branches where the teachers can meet, plan activities within their zones, and collaborate more with each other.”
In addition to that, Alexander stated that the DAT is hoping to have a representative at each school to improve the connection between the national executive and the teachers.
“We have many young teachers onboard now and a youth arm is in the making,” he noted.
He added, “We also hope to have an education conference and hope to provide training in leadership and other skills among our teachers, so that people will be more prepared to take up leadership positions in the association.”
Alexander revealed that he is already in negotiation with a funding agency on this.
He went on to state that the restructuring of the secondary schools is now complete.
“Our focus is now on the primary schools as well as giving more support to the teachers at the government-assisted secondary schools,” he noted. “We also have a number of teachers who have been retired for many years and remained faithful to the association.”
He stated that in 2021 these teachers were provided with vouchers that they could use at one of the country’s local supermarkets.
“This time around we are looking forward to something special with them and most likely see how they can mentor some of our young teachers,” Alexander noted.
Is this guy a comedian? He talks about all his “accomplishments” except the most important one – MONEY. How has his tenure enhanced the wellbeing of his members? These union leaders will strive to say in power for as long as they can because it provides them with a job. The fact that their leadership does nothing to improve the lives of their members seems lost on them.
Mr Alexander whatever you do, make a difference, make your time at the helm count. You have to encourage and push the implementation of African History, your history, and not only European history in all your schools. That’s your legacy. Your gov’t needs your encouragement to get this done. It’s important and imperative will also curb the drop out rate. Without this you have wasted your time at the helm.
What about the wellbeing of the teachers? Is this not important too? When students do well we commend them. However, we often forget to reward teachers for the personal sacrifice teachers often make. They are among the lowest paid professionals who live in subtle poverty.
Teachers’ salaries need to be upgraded with immediacy. Teachers and nurses are not remunerated nearly well enough for the yeoman efforts they put forth.
Mr. Alexander, leadership is not position, it is ACTION.
Indeed, teachers are way up there in importance. I’m in total support. Thank you for the reminder.
A third term? Seriously, Alexander!