Number of Teachers to Be Sent Home From Gwen Liz Still Undetermined

Aside from a reduction of teachers, resources allocated for the development of students will also be reduced considerably, since funding is set aside based on the size of its enrollment.  Smith tells News Five that the method used to identify which teachers will not be returning also includes lecturers who are aptly qualified.

On the Phone: Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U.

“So then that would then take another number out, so that would be two sets of teachers who would have been leaving the profession anyway.  So then it lessens the burden, or it lessens the hit, so to speak, on teachers, to say that teachers who are qualified would have to be asked to leave.  Nonetheless, that would not cover the number of teachers that they expect would need to leave based on the enrollment.  So there may be one or two teachers who are qualified but who do not have the necessary required workload or teaching load to be able to remain.  So, there might be two persons who would probably have to exit the school system.”

Isani Cayetano

“So we’re looking at seventeen teachers in total and this would probably be the process of elimination, correct?”

On the Phone: Elena Smith

“Now that is the issue because we were not given a number to say that it was seventeen.  We were not told whether it was seventeen, twelve, ten.  No number was given to us so we cannot say how many of those persons that will be affected in regards to licensing.  It sounds like it’s about five or seven of them and another few, two or four of them in terms of retirement age and then another two who we know are qualified, but because of the teaching load would not be able to remain.  And of those two, it seems as though one would be offered a position by the ministry somewhere else and then the ministry would be trying to see, they have reached out to BAPS to see which schools are in need of teachers so that those teachers then, those additional teachers who would need to be displaced then would be sent to over to those schools who need teachers.  So based on what was sent to us, it would seem that there would be no teachers then who would be put out of the system just like that.”