B.N.T.U. National President Speaks on M.O.E. Decision to Suspend Paid Study leave

On January twenty-first, managements of all schools, the B.N.T.U. and the Belize Teaching Services Commission received a memo from the Ministry of Education indicating that all approvals for study leave with pay were suspended.  Chief Education Officer Yolanda Gongora stated that this decision was made due to the fiscal constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  According to the memo, the suspension is until further notice. When the memo was issued, B.N.T.U. National President Elena Smith got on the phone with ministry officials because concerns were quickly identified with the decision. According to Smith, a meeting was later held during which the ministry accepted the union’s concerns.

Elena Smith

Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U.

“When the memo came out we had to call the ministry because it was not really clear. It didn’t clarify when it would have been effected and it did not specify for how long. We also had other concerns as it relates to those teachers who would have been disenfranchised due to their licenses coming to an end because they would not have been able to get the study to complete whatever study they were doing. As you may be aware a lot of our teachers do their degrees part time and when they get let’s say maybe a year or so into the end of their course they would apply for study leave so that they could complete within a specified period of time keeping in mind that they have a five year thing to deal with in terms of the license. So we want to ensure that teachers who are in that situation will not be disenfranchised. We want to meet again and we want to flesh out those agreements, put them in black and white. If a teachers’ license would have been affected we would put things in place to assist that teacher.”