For­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh has called on the coun­try’s 17 de­nom­i­na­tion­al boards to stand up against, what he called, the un­der­min­ing of the Con­cor­dat by the Gov­ern­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to Goopesingh, in a press state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly-en­shrined au­thor­i­ty, au­ton­o­my and in­de­pen­dence of the boards to man­age pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools may be un­der se­ri­ous and dan­ger­ous threat.

“I call on the De­nom­i­na­tion­al Boards in par­tic­u­lar to take a strong, de­ter­mined, fear­less stance against the Row­ley Gov­ern­ment’s gal­lop­ing dic­ta­tor­ship. Do your du­ty and take all le­gal mea­sures avail­able to pro­tect your con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly en­shrined rights, and the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples that gov­ern our ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor, and na­tion, for the sake of our chil­dren’s fu­ture,” the UNC mem­ber said.

He said the threat was present af­ter the Row­ley-led Cab­i­net re­ceived a re­port of the com­mit­tee com­mis­sioned in 2022 to re­view and rec­om­mend changes to the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment and the Con­cor­dat.

“Thus far, the Gov­ern­ment has not made this re­port pub­lic, as it must do, in or­der to pre­serve the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples that gov­ern the ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor, and in­deed, all na­tion­al pub­lic sys­tems.

“No­tably, this com­mit­tee com­prised 24 hand­picked PNM ap­pointees. There­fore, the pub­lic can­not be as­sured of their in­de­pen­dence un­til the re­port is made pub­lic, and un­less its find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions re­flect thor­ough and fair in­ves­ti­ga­tions, in­de­pen­dent of po­lit­i­cal bi­as­es and dic­tates. It is there­fore in­cum­bent on the Gov­ern­ment to ur­gent­ly make this en­tire re­port avail­able to the pub­lic, in the spir­it of de­mo­c­ra­t­ic fair­ness and trans­paren­cy,” Gopeesingh in­sist­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to the for­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter, the cur­rent ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly must not at­tempt to im­ple­ment any of the re­port’s rec­om­men­da­tions with­out com­pre­hen­sive con­sul­ta­tions with all stake­hold­ers.

He ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of, what ap­pears to be, a pat­tern of dic­ta­tor­ship and gen­er­al un­der­min­ing of the ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor, as well as the au­ton­o­my of de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools.

In Feb­ru­ary 2021, a com­mit­tee to re­view and rec­om­mend changes to the con­duct of the Sec­ondary En­trance Ex­am­i­na­tion, the tran­si­tion of stu­dents in­to sec­ondary school, and the Con­cor­dat was ap­point­ed.

Af­ter a nine-month term, a re­port was com­piled by the com­mit­tee and sub­mit­ted to the Cab­i­net.

In June, Min­is­ter in the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry Lisa Mor­ris-Julien con­firmed that the re­port was be­fore the Cab­i­net, and will be made pub­lic soon.