Corozal Teachers Address Problems at Start of School Year

Mario Mesh

During Thursday’s press briefing in Louisville, Corozal District at the end of the Belize National Teachers’ Union’s Annual General Meeting of the Corozal Rural Branch, national president of the B.N.T.U. Luke Palacio ceded the floor to some of his colleagues who are presidents of their respective branches to discuss some of their major issues in taking care of our children. Mario Mesh of the Rural Branch and Lavern Pate of the Corozal Town Branch said that their teachers go through quite a lot in the service of our nation’s children.

Mario Mesh, President, Corozal Rural Branch, B.N.T.U.

“And one of the things that we have seen especially right now at the beginning of the year is that teachers have taken monies out of their pockets, to paint their classroom, to buy their material, to ascertain themselves that they have everything in the classroom, because the Ministry of Education has an expectation on them. So either they want or not, they will prepare, because that’s their job; and bear in mind even if they are not getting the three percent at this point, they are still spending on the classroom.”

Lavern Pate

Lavern Pate, President, Corozal Town Branch, B.N.T.U.

“My teachers, they take out money to even feed the kids who doesn’t go to school with breakfast in the morning and you know that if we don’t eat we cannot function. So we do help our children although we are being bombarded right now that ‘oh, teachers don’t care,’ but we do. In the morning we are at school from seven-thirty, we are their baby sitters. Parent drop them at the gate, the gates are open, they are our babies at that time until their parents pick them up at eleven-thirty, take them for lunch and come back. So teachers do care for their students and parents do realize and appreciate what teachers do for their children.”

The general meetings of the B.N.T.U.’s ten branches take place twice for the year and the current round will last until the end of September.