By LEDEDRA MARCHE

Senior FN Reporter

lededra@nasguard.com

The Ministry of Education maintains it owes nothing to Jennifer Elliot, the special education teacher from the United Kingdom who was fired a short time after her arrival, and Acting Director of Education Cecil Thompson believes she is now on a campaign to have The Bahamas blacklisted.

"This campaign she's waging is meant to blacklist The Bahamas," he told The Freeport News yesterday, recalling Elliot's promise to him when he met her in 2005.

Elliot was contracted for three years and spent all of five months and insists the ministry treated her unfairly and owes her money.

She recently contacted The Freeport News to complain about her financial neglect and wrongful termination.

But according to ministry records, the special education teacher, who has since returned to the U.K., violated the terms of the contract, was terminated and paid in full as of January 21, 2006.

Elliot, who was born in Barbados, was recruited in England in the Summer of 2005 by a team and was posted to a special education school in Exuma, but after a stint she relocated to the capital.

Thompson, who revealed he only met her once in October 2005 when she was introduced to him, she disclosed the concerns she had over her experiences in Exuma.

It was also then, Thompson noted, that Elliot expressed to him that if things did not work out how she expected she would return to the U.K. and launch a complaint blacklisting The Bahamas.

According to the acting director, Elliot believed she had not been given the kind of support and cooperation from the district superintendent she should have.

Thompson said after Elliot noted she was treated well by the average Bahamian, but she didn't feel she was given the treatment she expected from education officials, he encouraged her that everything would work out O.K. and that was the extent of his contact with her.

However, things seemingly went from bad to worse, he said.

Elliot decided to go to New Providence instead of staying in Exuma and after a meeting with the undersecretary, she was reposted to The Beacon School in Grand Bahama.

It was not long before there was a fall-out with District Superintendent Hezekiah Dean, which Thompson describes as, "unbecoming."

In fact, Elliot admits to and education records reveal that she told an education official to tell Superintendent Dean to carry out an improper act.

"When we recruit abroad we also pick needles without eye and I would say the recruitment delegation who recruited Ms. Elliot did their best," he said.

Elliot's termination letter dated November 7, 2005 was effective on December 31, 2005.

In a letter to Education Adviser Dr. R. Degazon-Johnson, Permanent Secre-tary Creswell Sturrup wrote: "The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has been consistent and faithful to the spirit and letter of its standard agreement with foreign teachers."

Sturrup also wrote, "Despite our best efforts at remediation and support, we could not satisfy Ms. Elliot."

"The reason why she was terminated was because her behaviour towards the district superintendent and others were unbecoming of any teacher, let alone who the government went way over to the U.K. to recruit," Thompson explained.

No matter which government it is, Thompson said teachers always get all of the benefits.

"I challenge anyone, including Ms. Elliot, I don't know that The Bahamas government has ever cheated a single teacher out of a dime. On the contrary, it's the other way around," he said.

As far as the ministry is concerned, it had closed the book in this case of Elliot a long time ago.

"The ministry has done nothing to Elliot to apologize for. We had a business relationship with her. It was not a personal one, it was business. She violated the terms of it and it was terminated and I wish her luck wherever she is."

Thompson said Elliot believed she came here to introduce education when in fact she was brought here to build a proud foundation that had been laid by Bahamian, West Indian, British, Canadian and American educators over the century.

"Long after she would have been forgotten, we still have 60,000 students to educate," he said.

If need be, the acting director said the ministry will recruit more teachers from the U.K.

"she is not the first and won't be the last. We have nothing to gain. If we had done Ms. Elliot an injustice or disservice, I am man enough to apologize. But we haven't done Ms. Elliot any injustice, we haven't done Ms. Elliot any disservice.

"We recruited her to teach. We didn't recruit her to curse, or be disrespectful or obnoxious with Mr. Dean and other education officials."

Thompson wishes, however, that the negative part of Elliot's experience was otherwise.