Primary school students appear to be getting their school meals delivered on time again, the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) and workers at the School Meals Department (SMD) have reported.The SMD employees said that after weeks of delivering the lunches late because equipment challenges had delayed food preparation, they were able to get meals to students in time for their noon lunch break last week.BUT president Rudy Lovell also confirmed that the union had not received any recent reports of late lunches.The disclosure on Monday came a week and a half after Barbados TODAY reported that faulty equipment, poor working conditions and a shortage of vehicles at the SMD were the main factors contributing to thousands of students getting their lunches up to two hours late.“There were no late lunches for the entire week last week. After the article was published, that same weekend technicians came and worked on the commercial kitchen steam kettles,” said one of the workers.
Faulty equipment, poor working conditions and a shortage of vehicles at the School Meals Department (SMD) are the main factors contributing to thousands of students getting their lunches up to two hours late.That was the assertion of a group of 80 SMD workers who are being backed by the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW).After Barbados TODAY published an article on Thursday which stated that the Barbados Union of Teachers and the Association of Public Primary School Principals were demanding answers about why lunch delivery was habitually behind schedule since the start of the term, the workers reached out to this newspaper to shed light on the situation.The group’s spokesperson, who has been working in the government department for well over a decade, said her colleagues were going beyond the call of duty to ensure the nation’s children were fed but the situation at the SMD was not ideal.The worker, who did not want to be identified, explained that there were two shift system
Authorities are being pressed to explain why school meals have been delivered late since the start of the term, leaving thousands of primary school students waiting long periods for lunch.The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) and the Association of Public Primary School Principals (APPSP) confirmed to Barbados TODAY in separate interviews that from the beginning of the Michaelmas term, the School Meals Department has habitually delivered lunch behind schedule.“We want to know what is the problem. Some schools have reported receiving lunch after 12, some after 1 p.m. and some as late as minutes to 2 p.m,” BUT president Rudy Lovell lamented.“Having rolled out a new Summer Nutrition Programme [last summer], we would have expected the Ministry [of Education] and the School Meals Department to have everything in place to facilitate the delivery of lunch to our children. So we are seeking answers from the Ministry of Education and the School Meals Department as to why lunch is being del
A veteran educator is warning that Barbados’ economic and social growth will be stunted if the country does not reform its education system.It has come from former Senator and retired principal Alwyn Adams, who has argued that with Barbados having transitioned to a Republic, the country ought to get rid of the current educational system which he has described as “a preservation of British rule”.He made the points this afternoon while speaking at a Zoom webinar hosted by the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) entitled, Honest Conversations on Education Reform: Confronting the Elephant in the Room.“Barbados as the newest Republic will not be able to achieve its social and economic aims until or unless the education system is reformed,” Adams contended.“We had a situation where the chief persons in education in Barbados were all sent out from the United Kingdom. We are talking about the Bishop of Barbados, the Director of Education, the persons who were heads of the leading scho
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