Teachers will Receive Outstanding Allowances – Minister Thwaites

Education Minister, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, has assured teachers that despite wage restraint, they will receive outstanding allowances, which are scheduled to be paid.

“I am anxious that we settle with those we owe the refund of 50 per cent of their tuition costs. It is not fair to keep them waiting,” he said, noting that they will also receive another tranche of the seven per cent salary increase, which was awarded to them and other public sector workers in 2008/09.

Rev. Thwaites, who was making his contribution to the 2013/14 Sectoral Debate in Gordon Houseon Tuesday, May 15, further informed that the special grant of $25,000 each is also scheduled to be paid, as well as the usual 2½ per cent salary increase for those who are deemed to be performing well.

He noted, however, that the increment “cannot be automatic anywhere, it must be based on performance.”

Rev. Thwaites told the House that nearly $55 billion of the education budget is spent on remuneration and “we have to make sure the public gets value for this huge spending.”

He said that there needs to be adjustments to the probationary period for teachers, noting that under the 1980 Code of Regulations, a teacher who performs satisfactorily for one year in a clear vacancy becomes tenured, “virtually for life, in that school. This is unsustainable.”

“The probationary period has to be extended to a longer period, which will be negotiated. In the short run, teachers are being asked to be open to reassignment where the need arises,” he said.

The Minister also stressed that there must eventually be legislative authority to transfer teachers from one school to another to meet children’s needs.

He pointed to a “mismatch involving several thousand teachers, qualified in one discipline while teaching in another, while you have excess or inadequate capacity in another school 10 miles down the road. We must cooperate to change this.”

Minister Thwaites also indicated that adjustments will be made to the salaries of qualified early childhood education teachers come next year.

“We have to reallocate funds to correct the injustice of paying qualified early childhood teachers less than other qualified teachers. We will undertake action on this, unfortunately not this year, but next year,” he informed.

Contact: Alecia Smith-Edwards