Linden headmaster stands firm against ‘automatic promotion’ policy

BY REUBEN STOBY

The headmaster of the Christianburg/Wismar Secondary School, Cleveland Thomas, has said that, despite the criticisms levelled against him from the Education Ministry and some members of the public, he would not be conforming to the ‘automatic promotion’ policy. 

Thomas was in the spotlight recently when he was summoned by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) after he had refused to promote some 30 Form One students, whom he called illiterates. 

The head teacher’s action received support from many parents, who demonstrated against the ministry’s policy outside the TSC building. 

Thomas said that he is not prepared to turn out bandits and people who are not able to contribute meaningfully to the country. “We can automatically promote everybody, but when they get into the real world and they recognise that things don’t happen automatically, they become angry with somebody. I don’t want them, at that age, to become angry with me; because angry, uneducated people are walking time bombs,” Thomas told this newspaper. 

Education Minister Shaik Baksh recently told the media that an inspectorate team visited the school and found that teachers’ records were not up to date, and the Christianburg-Wismar Secondary School received a poor rating when compared to other schools in Linden. However, Thomas said that he would not respond to those comments, since they are not worth his time, and he would allow the CSEC results next year to prove otherwise. 

“The best school in Linden is Mackenzie High, followed by Multi (CWSS), for CSEC. “Everybody in Linden knows that, [for] this last result, Multi got 70 per cent passes with grades one to three. One hundred and twenty-two students wrote the exams, which was higher than the other years, since 2006,  in terms of increase in students writing CSEC exams; increase in numbers of grade ones, twos, and threes; along with an increase in the number of CSEC subjects,” Thomas said. 

Thomas labelled the inspectorate team that visited the school as a “fault-finding team” since, according to him, they only looked for what the school didn’t have. Asked also about how the teachers have been affected, Thomas said he has told them not to be angry with anybody, but to use their “God given” ability to continue doing their jobs. 

“I encouraged them, too, to continue to work hard, be dedicated, and be punctual for classes. 

Thomas further said that the dropout rate at his school is only two per cent, and there has been a significant decrease in dropouts as a result of teenage pregnancy. 

This he credits to awareness and counselling sessions that have been facilitated by the Linden Care Foundation, the school’s Parent-Teachers’ Association and Ismay Bakker.             

Meanwhile, Thomas told this newspaper that even parents of the students whom he had refused to promote are in support of his decision. “I am not about to say yes to something that I don’t accept. I will question it, and I think that it is my democratic right to question something that does not look too logical and principled,” Thomas declared.