LETTER: Are we ABCAS?

A few months ago the machinery was mobilized for the amalgamation of what is termed our Tertiary Level Institutions. As of 1st September, 2025 it would appear that the wheels on the amalgamation bus has started turning. Now I am writing from a standpoint where I know that change is inevitable, therefore I am not opposed to change. However I as well as countless others have many unanswered questions that need to be answered.

Firstly how could our unions: the Teachers Union, ATLU and ABPSA allow us to enter this thing without properly advising us? On Friday we were unkindly informed that we are now part of a statutory organization. How is that so? Our understanding was that after two years this would have been the option but now it seems as if we our employment statuses as government employee have changed.

We are now a part of a larger organization with increased responsibility but not with the requisite remuneration. From my understanding it is only the St Lucian doctor by her design and her team that will be raking in the dollars. Isn’t this in contravention of every labor law on the books? How could our unions allow this?

Question to the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda, the travelling Minister of Education and Permanent Secretary: how could the entire cabinet see it fit to appoint the good doctor to run a Tertiary Level Institution? Allowing her to act like lord of all I survey! What she wants, she get and when she requires that something is done, it has to be done! I mean it is not like the idea originated with her.

This thing was fleshed out on the foundation laid by another, so if you wanted to reward her you could have given her a position on a board somewhere because I can tell you one thing she’s not capable of running a college. What is her track record, what is her legacy? She was deputy director, she was Principal and what were her most defining moments?

Just check her track records, ask her colleagues, she na Kay bout people. It is me, myself and I. She is just bully as was displayed by her meeting with us on Friday 5th September, 2025. It was a display of her power bestowed on her by cabinet and also fueled by gossip which largely guides her behavior to others. Know this cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda, travelling Minister of Education and Permanent Secretary there is a lot of uncertainty among the staff.

Many of us are unsure about this amalgamation. Yes we would have accepted in good faith the positions offered to us however now in the grand scheme of things want more than anything to leave but are not sure if leaving will mean retrenchment. We are very unsure of our status and our benefits, while the president and her band of merry men are the most happiest in the whole scheme of things.

The way I see it is that there is a ticking time bomb that will soon explode. We need help, we need explanations, and we need assurances because nothing about this amalgamation makes sense. We need help in understanding what it means to be ABCAS, how will it really affect us and not from the president because she makes no sense. After all what she wants she gets hence the makeup of her management team, all puppets on a string! However the real work starts tomorrow and all is not well in the kingdom of ABCAS! THIS IS A CRY FOR HELP!