No Teachers to Be Displaced by New Curriculum Framework

Elena Smith

During the presentation today, President of the Belize National Teachers’ Union, Senator Elena Smith said that during the consultation, secondary school teachers expressed concerns about job security. Would the new curriculum framework see some teachers displaced? Education Minister Francis Fonseca confirmed that that will not be the case and that in fact, teachers will need to retrain.

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

“As we look at joining some subjects, we may find that some teachers who were teaching certain subjects may no longer have that subject to teach because we are combining a few. And so where do I go now? What happens to me now if my subject is being combined with another one? Two of us can’t teach the same subject. And so our teachers at the secondary level are concerned that they may lose their jobs in this process. And while we have said to them that we will do our best to ensure that doesn’t happen, the decision doesn’t lie with the union; it lies with the ministry.”

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“We’ve made that very clear from the onset as well, this is not about displacing any teachers, but it will mean that we have to, everybody has to be retrained, trained; there has to be continuous training.  A new curriculum requires a new shift in thinking, a new approach to learning, a new approach to teaching so that requires ongoing continuous training of our teachers. And also the curriculum requires greater emphasis in certain areas, so in certain areas we may require more teachers focused on particular areas. One of the big cries we heard over and over is the need for counselling in our education system, trained counsellors. So that’s one of the objectives we have as well. We want to train some of our teachers to be certified counsellors who can support their fellow teachers as well as support students. So that’s just one example of the type of shifts that you may see. But it certainly, as I have said and as we have made clear at the Ministry of Education from the beginning, this will not lead to the displacement or termination of teachers. New training, retooling and that sort of thing, but not displacement.”