Teachers must be placed at the centre of Barbados’ education reform if the Government is serious about transforming the system, educators declared during the recent John Cumberbatch Memorial Lecture held annually as part of the Barbados Union of Teachers’ (BUT) observance of Teachers’ Week.
Delivering remarks under the theme Teachers: The Heart of Educational Transformation, BUT President Rudy Lovell said the theme was “both timely and profoundly true”. He told the gathering that while transformation is often discussed in the context of technology, infrastructure, policy and finance, the real drivers of reform are teachers.
“We are the heartbeat of the system, the bridge between policy and practice. Without us, transformation is rhetoric. With us, transformation becomes reality,” he said.
Lovell underscored that throughout history, teachers have been the ones to ensure continuity of learning during periods of crisis.
“When society has faced crises, whether economic hardship, natural disasters, or the disruptions of a global pandemic, it has been teachers who ensured that learning did not stop,” he said. “In classrooms, online platforms, under mango trees, or in community centres, we have carried the responsibility of continuity.”
He said education was “not simply the transfer of knowledge; it is the shaping of a people”, stressing that “teachers hold the pen in writing the future of Barbados”.
Lovell called for urgent investment in the profession through continuous training, mental health support, safe working conditions, better resources, and the timely resolution of salary issues.
“If teachers are indeed the heart of transformation, then our society must invest in that heart,” he said. “Transformation requires tools. Our schools must be equipped with the necessary infrastructure and materials to enable teachers to perform their work to the highest standards.”
Lovell also urged the reinstatement of the full term’s vacation leave to its pre-2014 status, noting that educators needed time to “recharge their bodies and minds”.
He appealed to the Ministry of Educational Transformation, parents, and the wider community to “encourage us, support us, invest in us”, insisting that the success of future leaders depends on the strength of today’s teachers.
Dr Hyacinth Harris, a former president of the Association of Public Primary School Principals, who delivered the feature address, also emphasised the importance of empowering teachers to take an active role in shaping reform.
She said: “Empowerment provides greater autonomy and removes those conditions that cause powerlessness.”
Harris called for teachers to be treated as “subjects rather than objects of transformation” and that greater inclusion in decision-making would strengthen reform efforts.
“Transformation must be co-created, not imposed,” she said, referencing the 2025 ministerial statement and the recommendations of the United Nations High Level Panel on Education Transformation, which urged governments to “value and respect the teaching profession” and “make space for teacher voice in decision making”.
She said that when teachers are given opportunities for professional growth, operate in a supportive culture, and have adequate resources, “they feel a sense of ownership in the entire process”.
Teacher involvement, she added, “allows for unfreezing the traditional educational norms and past perceptions of education”, while creating the ideological and psychological shift needed for real change.
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