One important point that emerged from the talks with the Sports Federations and Associations is that all sporting organizations on St. Martin must go through their respective National or parent Associations or Federations when organizing or participating in events if they want government and those Associations and Federations to recognize the events and endorse them.
The Minister said she also met with members of the Board of the Raoul Illidge Sports Complex and of the Sports Upkeep Foundation and urged them to work together under one body to manage all sports facilities on the island.
The Board of the Raoul Illidge Sports Complex expressed some of the immediate needs of the facility which she visited earlier on an inspection tour. Those needs will be addressed shortly.
Education Minister Rhoda Arrindell said that the planned school visits went on very well. She said she was accompanied on these visits by the Secretary-General Mrs. Claudette Forsythe-Labega and her Executive Assistant, Morenika Arrindell.
Minister Arrindell said she listened to the various concerns brought forward by the school authorities. These were mainly about structural and maintenance issues and also about their human resource needs. Some of them mentioned certain projects that had been put on hold but which will hopefully be resumed in the new school year.
The Minister said she promised to address those issues which can be dealt with in the short term and some of these are already being handled by the Ministry. The long term concerns will be incorporated into the strategic planning for the year(s) ahead.
Among the themes that were discussed was the issue of parental involvement in the education process of their children. "We are convinced that this is one area in which the private sector needs to partner with government by being more pro-active. Businesses, for instance, must be able to cooperate in granting time off for parents to attend school meetings."The Minister said.
The tour of the schools also revealed the need for us to go on a recruitment drive of particularly male teachers. Female teachers far outnumber their male counterparts and that imbalance is not good for the overall development of the male students.
Minister Arrindell said she held the final meeting of the regular scheduled deliberations with the WITU last week during which they discussed Teacher Evaluation instruments. "During this meeting we arrived at positive conclusions for the way forward on this, and will proceed accordingly in the New Year. The idea is to use this evaluation to help in identifying the needs of those teachers who may require upgrading, and possibly establish a remuneration system based on performance.
As I said upon taking on this job, there is a lot of work to be done, and we are marshalling all our resources to accomplish the vision and the mission of the Ministry."
