B.N.T.U. President Leads with an Open-door Policy

It is the start of a new school year under the leadership of a new national teacher’s union president.  Ruth Shoman the President of the Belize National Teachers Union says she believes her most important objective at this time is to connect with her members and hear their concerns as classes resume. Among those concerns already raised are the income tax returns, finalizing the outstanding Collective Bargaining Agreement, and Continuous Professional Development hours or CPDS. Here is what she told us.

Ruth Shoman

Ruth Shoman, President, Belize National Teachers Union

“This new school year and it’s my personal approach, I believe in connecting with my members. That, to me, is critical. There should be no moment in time where my members feel that they can’t reach out to me. As a matter of fact, the number that is assigned to the office of the national president; I give it out randomly to all my teachers. Call me, reach out to me. That’s one of my first strategies, because a teacher cannot get the help if they don’t feel that they have somewhere to go. So, that’s one fundamental principle I will carry all the time. Reach out to me. You put me here to serve. I can only serve if you let me know what your needs are. That’s one. Two, I’ve been reaching out to them to gather data. I’m a very data driven person. I don’t believe in making decisions based on emotion, but rather data. And so since July, I have been putting out surveys.  Data has been gathered on issues that are affecting teachers. Based on the issues that were gathered on those surveys, I have met with the Ministry of Education to address the issues of income tax release, I’m sorry, the income tax returns, the issue of CPD hours, the licenses. These are ongoing issues. We have the CBA, that we seemingly are coming to a near end, and you know, fourteen years, And you know, a lot of has been invested by our past presidents in lots of meetings. It’s been a collective work to get this CBA finished.”