Dear Editor,
There are lots of talks about PFP party leader Melissa Gumbs, who is due to take up the position as Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. Currently, there are some dark clouds of suspicions, since the population is unaware of her clear-cut decisions – resolutions that could have severe consequences on the lives of children, teachers and parents.
Even though the uncertainty looms, I believe in giving people a chance to prove themselves, once their motives are aligned with the principles that govern their portfolio. While I do have reservations with the appointment, deep within, I still feel that MP Melissa Gumbs would do well, if she recruits a team of professionals to assist her – specialists, who have knowledge of the subdivisions of her prospective ministry.
Repeatedly, a ministry becomes stagnant because the minister tends to hire persons who ran on a list, or friends and even family members. No minister is obligated to bear the burden of selecting any candidate to be part of his or her office team. More often than not, it has been proven that many candidates turned out to be nothing but dead weight. This liability is what keeps a ministry spinning in circles, every single time.
While she is waiting to be appointed, now is a good time for MP Melissa Gumbs to use her managerial skills to envision the positive changes that she wishes to see, during the first year of her ministerial position, and then extends her vision, as she assesses her objectives and challenges. These constructive changes may include maintaining direct and constant interaction with the managers of all divisions; not forgetting the voices of the people.
This systematic approach would help her to maintain the awareness of the many successes and challenges within her ministry. Then, it will become easier to prioritize areas of concerns that need upgrading, in order to achieve continuous progress. It also gives the opportunity to combat the growing challenges that have kept educators frustrated for years.
For instance, educators have been complaining about the lack of materials to work with and the bureaucracy inside the ministry to obtain these resources. It may be a good idea to look at the entire structure of how to acquire these materials, identify the bottlenecks, and then seek ways to counteract this problem.
MP Melissa Gumbs has chosen a very interesting ministry, where she will be responsible for shaping the lives of the entire community, through education, culture and sports. Therefore, I sincerely hope that she would use wisdom, and stick to her professional duties, and do not introduce this destructive woke ideology in the schools.
If she does, this will be the end of her political career, and this move will cause an uprising for sure. Family values are still very prevalent on the island and parents will go to all length to protect these morals, even if it means closing down every single school on Dutch St. Maarten.
Joslyn Morton
