Faculty & Staff of ITVET Corozal Walk Out of School

While nurses have been protesting since weekend, there was also a walkout at ITVET Corozal today. The faculty and staff at the Institute for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the north sent out messages from over the weekend claiming that some of them have not been paid for months and that they have not been provided with the tools to carry out their duties. Minister of Education Francis Fonseca responds to this.

Francis Fonseca. Minister of Education

“We are aware of the situation. We inherited a very broken system as it relates to the payment of teachers, especially the ITVET sector. They are paid on contract. So we are aware of the situation in Corozal. We have been engaged with the chairman, the staff representative, the manager of the Corozal ITVET. Those discussions will continue today. The C.E.O., the Chief [Education Officer] are working on it, they are seeking to address the concerns. There are valid legitimate concerns being expressed by the instructors, the ITVET instructors. So we really have to take a really critical look at the entire ITVET structure and I think fundamentally reform that structure. We have these instructors on one-year contracts and that is not an effective way of doing this type of work. So we are addressing it, as you will appreciate, it is not a matter that just involves the Ministry of Education. It also involves getting approvals from Public Service [Ministry], Ministry of Finance. So we are taking steps to address some of these issues and I believe, if not today, in the very near future we will have these issues resolved to the benefit of the instructors.”