B.N.T.U. Invites Ministry of Education to Roundtable Discussion

The Belize National Teachers Union is once again in the news, following a terse statement released over the weekend regarding the now-rescinded increased telephone allowance for C.E.O.’s.  This time, however, the Council of Management for the B.N.T.U. has written to the Minister of Education and all school managements inviting them to a roundtable discussion on the way forward.  Five issues have been highlighted, including salaries not being paid for some teachers, allowances not being paid for some teachers since the beginning of the school year, increments not being restored, among other concerns.  Minister of Education Francis Fonseca is in receipt of B.N.T.U.’s open memo.

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“I saw the release that they put out, I think they have, they raised three primary issues.  One was the income tax return.  That is an unfortunate situation that we inherited.  We inherited an income tax filings, backlogs going back to 2015.  We had to hire staff, we had to have people work overtime.  We brought that up to 2021 but we still have work to do.  So that’s an unfortunate situation that we’ve inherited for, as I said, going back to 2015.  And so our team has been working on that issue and we’ve spoken to the BNTU many times about this issue.  So they know the work that is ongoing to bring those returns up to date, the filings of those returns up to date.  The other issue they raised, I think, was increments.  That, again, is a very, I think, you know, important issue, of course, for teachers.  The problem there is that the managing authorities, some managing authorities have not delivered the appraisals and appraisals are a necessary first step for the granting of increments.  And we have to be reminded, of course, that increments are not automatic, it‘s based on an appraisal and an approval process.”