And what does Education Minister Patrick Faber have to say about Hirian Good’s misfortune? Well, for starters, he’s not reversing his decision. He told us the job of school warden is inherently political – and he has his own people who need it.
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
“The lady Miss Good did come to see me when I was out at the Farmer’s Market, our normal hangout spot, and she came to me to say Minister I have been terminated, I have four children, and I said to her of course it is no secret that school warden positions are positions that are connected with politics. I have no knowledge about what her political affiliation is.
She did come to me and she said that she had four children in school and what she did not say to you was that I told her if I could be of assistance in helping those children to get whatever assistance I would be happy to do so but that the situation with the job could not be remedied.”
Keith Swift,
“Do you know why she was fired?”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“Well this is what I am saying. We have a situation where we have five of them who are not on a regular payroll coming from the Ministry, they are not officially on the payroll and we have been under pressure to make sure that is regularized. So about five of them or so we had to put off the system because we could not continue to pay them in the format which was a temporary arrangement.”
Keith Swift,
“And those 5 chosen were chosen because of their political affiliation?
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“I cannot say that that is the case but there were people that were not hired by this administration, that is true.”
Keith Swift,
“You see how that may be seen as very unkind and unfair.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“And we must understand that there certain positions and there are some who will not agree and I understand that but there are some positions within these Ministries that the politician could be allowed or should be allowed or have played politics with over the years and I am saying that the school wardens, everybody knows that that is some of the positions that that happens with. Does that mean that the quality of education will be any less at Trinity because Ms. Good is not there? I don’t think so and these are un-established workers, these are not established workers so again I can stand here if you want me to be and pretend that there is politics involved and that we should be fair with everything, I am here to improve the quality of education and I am a politician as well as long as I can continue to do my job to improve the quality of education and get away with certain things politically then that is what I’ll do.”
And while you’ve heard both sides of this story, we doubt you’ve heard the last as Charlie Good told us he will continue his protest. The Good family claims that when they went to Belmopan to see the Prime Minister to ask for his intercession, they never got past the front door as police asked them to leave.
