Dear Editor – At last one of the former staff of SID during SICHE has finally opened up on this topic. Paul Ramo in his letter, dated 4th July 2017, confirmed the sad things I knew that were not done right by Palladium.
He not only confirms these things but adds details to them and also has highlighted new things.
Before discussing further, I firstly call on the STMS stop denying things that are proven beyond doubt. I encourage both STMS staffs and administration to regroup now to correct and redo what Palladium has meddled with and has destroyed.
Act before ITEC is completely erased and consumed by Palladium’s wrong claims and sneaky moves. If there is any supervising authority that is responsible for SINU, I think the time to intervene and look into these issues already gone by, so start thinking now.
It can be seen in Paul’s letter that the course review under Palladium was not done better than how the courses were designed and developed in the late 60s by the British.
The British experts have foreseen our future more than 50 years ago and so they developed courses that are still relevant our industry today.
In fact, according to my findings which were also confirmed by Paul and the industry, the current courses are more advanced in many ways and that many of those whom have graduated more than 20 years ago have found that the technology used today just made their work even easier.
Another sad thing that I realized from Paul’s letter was Palladium has destroyed the only electric motor learning units in the electrical department. This was very a sad thing and also a very clear sign of downgrading of this course.
I think this kind of unprofessional behaviour by Palladium toward the school’s properties and learning units and staffs should be seriously dealt with by the university’s authority.
To prove Paul’s story about the use and demand for electric motors in the industry, I visited some private companies’ workshops, factories and ships. I asked those who are in charge there if electric motor are still be needed.
Overwhelmingly, their responses were all but many big yes. There was not a single no, answer. I was encouraged by their firm responses. They firmly told me that there will never be any replacement for electric motors.
Therefore, I just cannot understand why the APTC advisors said that these motor learning units were not relevant to the industry and have completely destroyed them.
Allow me to recount one of things I learned from automotive staffs. This is Palladium’s plans to remove the automotive department only but latest wheel alignment machine from SINU’s facility to APTC training facility.
Sadly according to every automotive staffs, the APTC advisors has already removed from this training unit’s computer all of the latest models of vehicles. Firstly, it is clear that this planned removal the machine is clearly, purely and surely the parasite’s tactic.
Secondly, I see this planned removal of the machine and the already removal of the machine’s computer programs not only downgrading the automotive training but also an intentional degrading of the school – STMS.
In addition to the things done by Palladium I mentioned above, there was another shocking thing I discovered over the last few weeks. I was passing by the ITEC training workshops and I had something sharply grabbed my attention.
Having attended SICHE’s open days, I am pretty familiar with all the workshops and, therefore, I can tell that this workshop that had the things being taken from is the current plumbing workshop.
Since I have also been quite familiar with the workshops settings from school open day browsers and visits, I can tell the things that were taken out were the plumbing welding machines.
During the visits we were told that plumbing workshop has its own welding machines because there are important specialized welding tasks the students must learn. If the removal of these machines was similar to the destruction of electric motor learning units from the electrical training workshop as Paul revealed, then this is sad and disastrous for the plumbing training.
Also, the removal of these machines both indicated a very clear sign of the downgrading of this course and also the degrading of STMS in the face of the staffs.
I can still remember well the three staff that looked after plumbing trainings and their students proudly telling us the visitors during open day visits of how important these welding machines were to the department and to student’s training.
Now there are no more of such important machines for the training of their plumbing students. I wonder what is going on in the minds of these three staffs since they have already known the significance and benefits of these machines.
Now, the things that have happened makes me wonder if the highly experienced and trained electrical, plumbing and automotives staffs of ITEC will ever come to realize the destruction, the removal and planned removal of the school’s properties and learning units done by Palladium’s APTC advisors.
I am also aware that SID staffs during SICHE time have been very tough and vocal about the issues that would damage the better standards at SID. This is currently missing now.
Perhaps the reason of these staffs’ silence, I think, only indicated their fear of possible discipline by the STMS if they point out Palladium’s weaknesses and failures. Understandably but also sadly, the staffs may now learn to live with the bitterness and guiltiness to sacrifice the better courses for the security their jobs.
I now strongly believe that the removal of these students’ learning units was intended to weaken and downgrade not only the trade courses but the whole School of Technology and Maritime Studies. Sadly, these happenings seem to have gone out of control of STMS administration and the staffs.
On this similar note, the lack of respect and no care attitudes displayed by Palladium towards STMS, the STMS’s properties and hardworking staffs, may also been the very reasons why Batuna and Don Bosco Training Institutions have fallen out of love with Palladium.
I also think that Palladium at some stage has been reprimanded by these two schools because of such bad and unprofessional attitudes. I believe there were many other things that are really wrong with and scary about Palladium. But since things seem to go unchallenged and out of control at STMS, I think the administration must have been enticed.
Lately, I somehow managed to get in touch with Paul after I read his letter. We briefly talked for about 20 minutes. During our conversation he seems to appear defensive few times, and I can understand why. But it was a sad thing for me to know how things have gone terribly out of control and into the sneaky hands of Palladium. In fact the message is clear; Palladium comes in the name of course review only to establish APTC in the middle of SINU. And while establishing APTC, it uses APTC advisors to downgrade both the courses and STMS. This led me to think that Palladium is currently working like a parasite, using and feeding from STMS properties and equipments, etc.
Also, in my short discussion with Paul, he also told me that another staff is leaving the school. Paul told me that they were the ones who began the solar trainings at the school few years back. I asked him what may have triggered this staff leaving the school.
Paul laughed and said that his former work colleague may not know how to teach shop keeping stuffs to students who wanted to become qualified electricians. I asked Paul to arrange a meeting with this staff but he (Paul) still defensive and declined my request.
The other shocking thing highlighted from my interaction with Paul was the shop keeping stuffs that will be taught at electrical department. This is terrible and does not look good.
However, at some stage during our short discussions I seem to have the impression that Palladium’s sneaky moves may never go down well with the students’ recording system done and kept by the academic services. If this is true it will be is a disaster both for the academic services and STMS, but the worst victims will be the students.
Finally, having known APTC for almost 10 years now and also having investigated what Palladium have done at STMS since last year; it is now clear that Palladium under the cover of course review has finally established APTC with its own terms and conditions in the heart of SINU. Critically thinking, this is true because the things that have happened around the school were beyond the control of STMS administration and seems like have finally falling perfectly into the terms and conditions of APTC and not SINU.
Also it can be seen that things (also discussed previously) happened at STMS have not indicated an upward direction but sadly a downward direction under APTC advisors. I am calling on SINU’s authority (if there is one) to intervene and critically deal with the sad things that have taken place under the cover of course review.
I think there may be other disturbing issues apart from the ones discussed here that also needed to be critically looked into and if necessary, Palladium must be dealt with seriously. Act before Palladium and APTC advisors do more damage.
Lote Motate
Honiara
