Teacher’s union to protest government at Independence Hill
Kathleen Flowers
That’s in the valley, but all indications are that this Friday in the capital, the teachers will be facing off with government when the House meets. That’s the word coming from B.N.T.U.’s Belize District Branch President Kathleen Flowers, who told News Five that a unanimous vote was taken just before news time this evening. This comes on the heels of an announcement by the Prime Minister that increments to public officers are off the table for the next financial year. The union’s request to delay the removal of corporal punishment from classrooms has also been denied and the ministry will go full steam ahead with the second and third reading of the Education and Training Bill. It is known that more than five branches of the Belize National Teachers Union have agreed to march in Belmopan. Flowers told News Five that the largest branch, the Belize District, will be in attendance.
Kathleen Flowers, Belize District Branch President, BNTU
“We’ve had a decent turnout of our membership, we tried to mobilize after Monday and we’ve had just over a hundred and twenty-five to a hundred and thirty members turning out this afternoon. We’ve called the meeting in order to discuss our way forward in terms of what we will be doing in relation to the Education and Training Act and the removal of the corporal punishment clause from the rules. We are taking a vote on whether we want to support the union in its call to have that removed only on the grounds that something be done to replace it and done in a constructive way where the mechanisms and the structures are worked through by all stakeholders, unions, agencies that are interested in the wellbeing of our children.”
Isani Cayetano
“The burning question on most anyone’s mind is whether or not the Belize District Branch is joining the other districts in Belmopan on Friday.”
Kathleen Flowers
“The way our democratic process works in B.N.T.U. doesn’t matter which branch it is when the B.N.T.U. calls on the branches we move together because we would have voted by branch to determine what our move would be and the majority vote results in our calling on all the branches to move hence that includes the Belize branch.”
Isani Cayetano
“And what is that majority vote at this point?”
Kathleen Flowers
“From what I felt as we conducted the meeting there seems to be a unanimous decision from my membership with the amount of people that were here this evening.”
The House of Representatives meets this Friday in its first session since the beginning of 2010.
