The Belize National Teacher’s Union has issued a statement in which it expressed “disgust” at the Ministry of Education for not having given them a finalized list of schools that have been re-categorized for allocations to teachers for hardship allowances and Time-Off to Collect Salaries.
The release rails that “changes made to the list will see many of our teachers disenfranchised and inconvenienced at a time when they most need the assistance of the MoE.” It continues to state that “we recognize that there are some schools that were erroneously awarded time off for teachers to collect their salaries…” It goes on to tell teachers to “continue to take the time off to collect their salaries until MoE respects the bargaining agent… we refuse to give up these benefits we have worked so hard, over the years, to secure on their behalf.”
For the sake of clarity we contacted officials at the Ministry who categorized the impasse based on two issues, the first being the re-categorizing of hardship allowances for rural school teachers; the second was the revisiting of time off for payday.
On the first issue it is noteworthy that the last time this exercise was conducted was in 2000, a full 18 years ago. Categorizing of allowances would be determined on what are considered hardship factors. These include among others the distance that teachers have to travel, the quality of the road, access to basic utilities and the degree of difficulty in the event teachers have to move out in the case of an emergency. Based on those factors the schools are categorized from 1 to 3 with 1 having the most hardship factors. The rationale is to ameliorate the hardships through monetary compensations. In 2013 the compensation for category 1 went from 100 to 200 dollars per month; category 2 went from 60 to 120 dollars and category 3 from 50 to 100 dollars per month. At the time there were 95 schools under either of these categories.
The new exercise started in May of this year with the Joint Education Staff Relations Council (JESRC) which is made up of education stakeholders. These stakeholders are tasked with looking at challenges in the education system and through a joint mechanism come up with solutions. The issue of allowances and payday time off were such challenges and a sub-committee was selected to make the revision. Included in this group were representatives from the Ministry of Education, BNTU, Managing Authorities for Primary schools and Administrators for secondary tertiary level institutions. The BNTU president was a member of the sub-committee.
In the process there was a redefinition of hardship criteria and to make sure all were in agreement. They then went through each of the districts and examined over 300 schools throughout the country. By June the committee presented recommendations to the JESRC. Members of the council were given chance to review those and were asked to submit observations and recommendations for them to be incorporated into the draft. In July the JESRC approved the recommendations and for good measure re-circulated the changes to all managing authorities even those who do not form part of the JESRC. According to the Ministry the BNTU never gave any feedback on the matter though the president did express great concern that some schools were being re-categorized but pleasure that others were being added.
When the process started there were 95 schools on the list and at the end of it there were 103. More schools who qualify for hardship allowances were added in Corozal, Orange Walk and Toledo. Three were taken off completely in the Stann Creek District. Taken off the hardship list were Bella Vista R.C. School with 35 teachers. This school is geographically located in the Toledo District but is administered through the Stann Creek district office. Also taken off was San Juan Bosco Cowpen School with 18 teachers and Holy Family School in Hopkins with 19 teachers. In all these cases the Ministry provides transportation specifically for teachers to and from the schools. So they bear no out of pocket expense for this purpose. The schools are also located in areas that have access to excellent paved roads and do not lack basic utilities. In the instance of Hopkins it is even a tourist destination.
Outside of those three schools there were those that were re-classified, the school in Jalacte for example went from a category 1 to a category 2 because there is now the newly built Jalacte road that makes travel to and from the school more comfortable.
All told 18 years after the last classification the changes had to come as in the last 10 years alone there have been significant upgrades to infrastructure.
The Second issue that the BNTU rails about is that of Payday time off where some teachers took a full day of half day to deal with their pay. The revision for this was done by the same committee and it first looked at whether the schools was in an urban or rural area. Those schools that are on highways or near to highways were disallowed time off. Considerations made in others being taken off is the fact that with technological advances there was no need for teachers to leave the classroom to collect their pay. Most teachers get their payments directly deposited to their accounts, there is online banking as well as ATM’s available for banking transactions to be done outside of school hours.
This exercise was a bit different than the first as there was actually no telling which schools took Payday time off and which didn’t. With the review however there is now a listing of the schools and what each is allowed. In the Belize district 6 schools qualify with 5 getting a whole day and 1 getting a half day. In Cayo out of 22 schools 7 get a whole day while 15 get half day; Corozal it is 16 schools with 11 getting a whole day and 5 getting half day; In Orange Walk 22 schools qualify with 7 which get a whole day and 15 getting half day; Stann Creek it is 9 schools, 4 of which get a whole day and 5 get half day and finally in Toledo 45 schools qualify with 31 getting a whole day and 14 getting half day.
It is notable that in the entire public service no other officers are given time off to collect their pay.
