M.O.E. Supports Docking of Teachers’ Salaries

The Ministry of Education is siding with schools managements which have decided to dock the salaries of teachers who were absent on November seventh, the day that more than a thousand teachers demonstrated in Belmopan. A release from the ministry today states that the Education Rules provide clear guidelines in addressing unauthorized absences of teachers and according to rule seventy-seven, managements are provided with the authority to disallow a claim for payment for any period of unauthorized absence. The Belize National Teachers Union considers this move as downright mean-spirited and warns that if at some point any teacher decides to discontinue contributions to these managements to aid in operational cost, can do so with the full support of the B.N.T.U.  The Ministry sees this threat as an “approach to exaction.”