Oct. 15, 2007 — High government officials, visiting union officials and local union leaders sang the praises of education Monday morning at St. Croix Educational Conference, opening the St. Croix Federation of Teachers' annual conference.
It was the 28th Mini-QuEST — or Quality Education Standards in Teaching — professional-development conference. Hundreds of teachers packed the school's auditorium, listening to the dignitaries speak before splitting off into informational work sessions.
Union officials reminded elected representatives that V.I. teachers are working without a contract, are still due back pay and believe they need a raise. Starting teachers in the territory get paid $28,000 a year. Teachers are still awaiting a contract for the 2007-08 school year, as well as back pay from a freeze instituted between 1992 and 2000.
"What are we?" asked Vernelle de Lagarde, president of the St. Thomas Federation of Teachers. "We are a strong labor union without any apologies. Who are we? We are waiting for our contract, waiting for our retro, we are working every day to address health and safety, disciplinary problems, asking when are we all going to be highly qualified, all going to be certified."
De Lagarde said their purpose — the "why" they are teachers — was always for the sake of the children.
The national union stands behind the local union's needs, said Nat La Cour, treasurer and secretary at the national level for the American Federation of Teachers.
"They need a contract," La Cour said. "They need a raise, and they are dependent on Gov. (John) deJongh and Mrs. de Lagarde to negotiate those terms."
On the national level, La Cour said the AFT is working to get changes introduced to the No Child Left Behind Act. La Cour lamented the failure of NCLB to match its requirements with financial support.
Gov. John deJongh Jr. said he would take steps to ensure contract negotiations get on track, promising to speak to Chief Labor Negotiator Jessica Gallivan and take an active interest in the process. Education is the key to giving Virgin Islanders the tools to take an ownership stake in society, he said.
"I dream of a Virgin Islands where our Virgin Islanders have the opportunity not to be workers only, but to be owners," deJongh said, extolling programs to promote entrepreneurship alongside world-class education. "As Thomas Friedman wrote, the world is flat. Once equipped with the tools they need, our students can go anywhere they want with them."
Senate President Usie Richards thanked teachers, their aides and other school professionals for the work they do, and provided a parable or two in support of the mission of learning.
"Louis Farrakhan, who I admire and follow, said, ‘He who prescribes the diameter of your learning controls the circumference of your activities,'" Richards said. "The true purpose of education will be seen when you know yourself."
Richards brought the same theme home again with the words of another famous American.
"What lies behind you and what lies ahead of you are small matters compared to what lies within you," he said, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Colin Greene, president of the Caribbean Union of Teachers from 1999 to 2003, gave the keynote address.
"All of us are in a knowledge-driven world," Greene said. "That means it is that much more critical we teach our children well. There is a public consensus that a key obligation of a democratic society is to educate its citizens well. A nation that does not do so will be written off."
The stakes of education and the demands made on schools have never been higher, and the Caribbean is at something of a crossroad of opportunity, Greene said.
"We are tasked with educating (children) to be global citizens," Greene said." We in particular in the Caribbean were not there for the agricultural revolution. We were not there for the industrial revolution. But we have an obligation today to be there for the information revolution."
To do this, Greene said, institutions of government must listen clearly and respond to what the teacher's unions are saying. Better pay and more support for public rather than private education are crucial, he said.
"Teachers are still paid less than other professions that require comparable skills and education," he said.
Greene is presently the principal of the Princess Margaret School on Antigua. He was president of the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers. In 2004, he got elected to the Executive Board of Education International at its congress in Brazil.
After the ceremonies and speeches, teachers split into workshops throughout Education Complex. Sessions ran the gamut from overcoming barriers to parent participation to planning estates. The Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder Classroom, presented by first lady Cecile deJongh, was particularly popular, with standing room only and some listeners struggling to peer in the door.
After a pause for lunch, the workshops continued long into the afternoon, in three consecutive hour-and-a-half sessions.
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