Teachers Riled Up; Want Apology from PM Briceño

On Wednesday’s news, viewers saw teachers from Stann Creek join a motorcade to express displeasure at the government’s proposed salary cut and increment freeze for teachers and public officers for three years.  What you may not know is at the same time on Wednesday in Belize City the council of management of the Belize National Teachers Union was meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde and Education Minister Francis Fonseca. The B.N.T.U. was seeking clarification on the proposed cut and also made recommendations to the government. But by the end of the meeting, they say it became apparent this was already a done deal. To make matters worse, Prime Minister John Briceño was at the City Council swearing-in telling the media “the teachers and the public service have not done any kind of sacrifice.” National President of the B.N.T.U., Senator Elena Smith says the teachers demand an apology.

Elena Smith

Senator Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U.

“In the meeting yesterday, and as we did before, we’ve asked them clearly if that was their final position and we were told yesterday by the Deputy Prime Minister was that they are not hard and fast on those proposals; that the reason why they were coming to us to discuss these matters and come up with the best solutions. We know that this is not going to be an easy fight because while we hear certain persons saying one thing, then we hear other persons saying another thing. And to add to it was the comment made by the prime minister that teachers and public officers are the ones that have not sacrificed anything. And that certainly did not sit well with our teachers. And for our prime minister of this country to look at our teachers when the person closest to him is a teacher and to say that we have not sacrificed anything is out of order and disappointed to say the least because having a teacher in his home, he should understand what teachers have to go through, what we have to do on a daily basis for us to carry out as teachers. How much we have to sacrifice from our own families; taking things from your homes and taking them to school just to do your job. So his statement has really gotten our teachers riled up and I hope that he would reconsider and he would apologise to our teachers for that statement.”