Should unwed pregnant teachers be fired?
The church state system that has been the bedrock of the nation’s educational system is not without its problems. Today one persistent conflict over “who runs things” in Belize’s classrooms became the subject of public debate. News 5’s Patrick Jones has the story.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
The mid-afternoon press conference was called by the National Women’s commission to put forward its public position on discrimination against unwed pregnant teachers in the school system. Reading from a prepared text, president of the Commission Dolores Balderamos Garcia delivered what can only be described as a stinging rebuke of some church managements.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Pres., Natl. Women’s Commission
“Many, many lives have been affected over the years. And as we have seen from the countless stories of women affected-and of course we think about their own children, when they were pregnant, the unborn child, as well as the child after she had the baby-we have seen, even in the implementation of church policy and school rules, there have been double standards and uneven treatment of teachers involved. Our commission feels today that we must seize the courage of our convictions. We call on our political leaders therefore to ensure the right to work and to protect the basic and inalienable human right of childbearing and non-discriminatory treatment.”
Garcia says that the net effect of what the commission is now trying to do is to strengthen legislation that would specifically address the issue.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
“We still feel that perhaps with additional regulations or an additional law, there may be a stronger case; we can buttress the case if any teacher would want to challenge a particular school system. We are not encouraging the teachers to challenge the moral authority of the churches as has been said so many times before, but we do feel that it is now time for government to take even stronger steps because the type of discrimination has been on going for so long.”
Labour Commissioner, Paul Williams, says numerous complaints have been coming into his office and one particular recent case came particularly close to home.
Paul Williams, Labour Commissioner
“Well I have gotten a few and there was one recently in the Toledo District, I am actually from P.G. and this really hurt me when I heard that this teacher had lost her job. And knowing that this is the time that this teacher most need her job because she needs to maintain herself and also the unborn. The unborn did not call to be born, but then one must survive and we need to look at the legitimacy of the whole matter.”
But the legitimacy of such practices, or lack therefore, now looks to put teachers and the Women’s commission on a collision course with church management of schools. Garcia says while the intention is not to provoke a fight with the church, the bottom line is that women do not get pregnant by themselves.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
“That is the crux of the matter because the church denominations will say that the policy is the same for the male teachers. The difference is unless somebody is like the Leith police; policing people private behaviour you won’t know when the male teacher has someone pregnant out there. So it is an issue that we have had to look at. But I want to assure you not today the teachers have realised that this is discrimination. This has been going for many, many years.”
General Secretary of the Belize National Teacher’s Union, George Frazer, says the playing field must be level when it comes to the issue.
George Frazer, General Secretary, B.N.T.U.
“We haven’t made a head count, but it’s in the dozens. And what has happened, which is very tragic, is that there have been many cases of double standards where sometimes you find if this unmarried female teacher belongs to a family that is very strong in the church or supportive sometimes they turn their heads.”
Patrick Jones
“Are you prepared as head of the women’s commission to deal with whatever fallout there will be by bringing a specific law to deal with discrimination?”
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
“I wouldn’t know what kind of fallout you are talking about because I think as we had pointed out a little earlier, putting the laws in place is one thing, making sure that they are implemented is sometimes another. But there again, that is where lobby groups and advocates have to come in and the persons who would be willing to stand up and defend the rights of, in this case of our teachers in particular.”
President of the B.N.T.U., Anthony Fuentes, says the campaign by the Women’s Commission is particularly encouraging.
Anthony Fuentes, President, B.N.T.U.
“We from the Belize National Teacher’s Union greatly support this idea to end all discrimination against our female teachers. I must say here that our teachers, many of them have suffered from being discriminated against because of them being pregnant. In fact, Mr. Williams spoke of the issue in Toledo, myself and Mr. Frazer went down to Punta Gorda Town and we met with the Toledo Regional Education Council to reference that matter, and at the end of the day, the Toledo Regional Education Council decided that that teacher would have been placed on maternity leave and as soon as she had given birth to her child should have been replace back into the classroom.”
Patrick Jones, for News Five.
The Commission today presented the Prime Minister with close to twenty-six hundred signatures that were collected as part of the campaign to raise awareness on the discrimination issue. Garcia says the Prime Minister has promised to take the matter to Cabinet.
