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The Belize Times
Established 1957
The Truth Shall Make You Free
2 OCTOBER 2016 | ISSUE NO: 5013
www.belizetimes.bz | $1.00
UNION BUSTING! MOE MOVES TO INTIMIDATE TEACHERS Wednesday, 28 September 2016 Education officials led by Minister Patrick Faber during a three-hour meeting at the ITVET compound in Belize City with general managers, secondary school principals and board chairs of secondary schools presented their plan to keep classes open despite industrial action announced by the Belize National Teachers’ Union for Monday October 3rd. The intention of the Ministry is to sign - by Sunday October 2nd - a Statutory Instrument (SI) that will see temporary replacement teachers hold over in the classrooms starting as early as Wednesday October 5th. According to Minister Patrick Faber, those “temporary” teachers will include “teachers who have not really entered the teaching profession yet but are in the teacher education institutions and they want to do an internship…so they don’t have a license yet; they don’t meet the requirements yet but this allows them to go into the classrooms to teach. It also covers these volunteer groups
coming from church groups who come into the country and who want to operate in our schools on a voluntary basis or to impart some kind of special knowledge to the children.” Interestingly, even those teachers who were dismissed this past summer because they lacked the required training and certification can be hired as temporary replacement teachers. Retired teachers and even parents of good repute in the community will also be tapped, according to Faber. Faber and the Government of Belize have insisted that with the 3 percent salary adjustment not on the negotiation table with the BNTU, there is no “properly constituted labour dispute.” Asked if the Government’s actions could be classified as strike breaking Faber responded, “ah, no! And you will know that the obligation, the mandate to me as Minister of Education and to my Ministry, the Ministry of Education, [is] that we must ensure that there is the delivery of education services in this country. You could term it whatever you want…but that is my job!”
581
SUSPECTED CASES OF
ZIKA Six pregnant women infected
Pg. 3
Pg. 2
WE DEMAND GOOD GOVERNANCE Pg. 2
The Dangerous Life of McAfee Pg. 23
WE SUPPORT OUR TEACHERS!