The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) is not happy with the system it has to use to provide the Ministry of Education with timely end-of-term reports.
On Monday, president Rudy Lovell expressed concern over comments made on social media platforms regarding teachers not completing their end-of-term reports on time.
Some commentators spoke of their disgust with the Openemis system, saying it was down often, but, more importantly, not working near the end of term when it was most needed. One indicated that some teachers only got back on to the system last Tuesday.
However, the ministry, in confirming that information technology problems had been experienced, said the system should be fully back on line in the coming days.
“The BUT wishes to emphasise that the blame should not be placed on teachers, but rather on the Openemis system, which poses challenges at the end of each school term. The union is urging the Ministry of Education . . . to address this issue and provide a more reliable and stable system for teachers to use for inputting end-of-term comments and marks,” Lovell said.
He also noted that teachers were facing ongoing obstacles and difficulties with the Openemis system every term “which impact their ability to complete their reports on time despite their diligence and effort”.
The BUT president urged the ministry to clarify and improve the situation and called for better support and resources to enable teachers to fulfil their responsibilities effectively.
In response, the Ministry of Education’s manager of information systems Andre Hinds said they were aware of a glitch in the Openemis system which has delayed the generation of end-of-term report cards for students.
“Based on our checks, at least 70 per cent of the teachers had input their grades and comments in the system before the glitch was rectified.
“The ministry has extended the deadline for all teachers to grant them time to generate report cards and have them vetted by senior staff.”
Hinds added that this latest development had been communicated to schools via correspondence sent out by Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw last week.
“The Ministry of Education is confident that all report cards should be generated and distributed in the coming weeks,” he said.
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