Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald yesterday warned all public school teachers to show up for work at the start of the new school year next week or face the consequences.

Fitzgerald was responding to a threat from Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT) President Belinda Wilson, who said last week teachers would not teach at two public schools, one in New Providence and the other in Grand Bahama, if their principals are not removed.

Fitzgerald said he had reviewed the problems raised by Wilson and has discussed the issue with the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and school board at both schools.

He said the ministry has decided that the principals in question will stay in their posts.

"It's been worked out and any action that she may decide to take, or the teachers, which may not be to their benefit and to their detriment, I advise them to strongly reconsider," the minister said.

"I am satisfied now that the principals will be returning to school and that they have the support of the majority of teachers as well as administrators, school board and PTA at those various schools.

"Having said that, I expect that all teachers will report to work on Monday morning. No industrial dispute has been filed as far as I'm aware of.

"And any teachers [who] do not report will understand that as far as I'm concerned they are withholding their services and they know what course of action I will take after that."

Last week, Wilson said teachers at the two unnamed schools were working in a "hostile" environment and did not feel supported by administrators.

"At this time, I will not call the names," Wilson said.

"But we have placed the ministry, the minister of education, the permanent secretary and the director on notice that the Bahamas Union of Teachers and our members within those two schools are not prepared to begin the new school year with those two principals in the schools.

"We are concerned about the academic direction of the schools.

"We are also concerned about the hostile environment at the schools, and the teachers for the most part do not feel that they are supported by these two administrators.

"We believe that the schools can move forward much more quickly and in a positive way if both of those administrators are removed from both of those schools."

Fitzgerald said he was "disappointed" that Wilson aired her concerns in the media before allowing education officials to finish their review of the matter.

However, he stressed that in spite of Wilson's stance he expects the opening of public schools to go smoothly. "As far as the opening of schools for next week, we see no issues," Fitzgerald said.

"Schools are prepared, we are finalizing the painting and the cleaning of the grounds, and we have no major issues from that point."

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