Are Succotz teachers being transferred against their will?

Primary schools open on Monday but for teachers in Benque Viejo del Carmen and Succotz Villages, eleventh hour transfers are taking place. This is because the Ministry of Education indicated from April of this year that the two schools were overstaffed with teachers and therefore transfers were necessary. The situation has left the teachers at Mount Carmel Primary School in Benque and Succotz Primary School nervous because they feel they are being forced to accept the last minute move or lose their jobs. News Five’s investigations took us first to the office of Deacon Calvin Cathers, the Local Manager of both primary schools. Cathers declined to talk on camera and said it is not newsworthy. He explained that his General Manager, Bernaldino Pech, provided him with a list of the approved number of total staff members at the two schools. Cathers said the numbers resembled last year’s and thus he failed to get clarification on whether those totals represented only teachers or other staff as well. Cathers said that last week Pech again informed him that the two schools were overstaffed and therefore they would have to transfer five teachers from Mount Carmel and two from Succotz. But they later found that because the number of student enrolments increase around September, they would need three teachers to stay on. This leaves four that would still need to be transferred. And Cal said three of those four he had spoken to had no problems and that there was only one teacher’s feedback to get. But a teacher who spoke to us on camera said the opposite. Henry Castaneza, who has been teaching at Succotz Primary for two years, said Cathers called him in earlier today to inform him that he was being transferred to a school in Belmopan and that if he doesn’t agree, he will be dismissed.

Henry Castaneza, Teacher
“I was never asked for my consent so I was just told either a go or I would be dismissed from school.”

Marion Ali
“And this came from who?”

Henry Castaneza
“Deacon Cal Cathers.”

Marion Ali
“How do you feel about this, knowing this one week before school reopens?”

Henry Castaneza
“Well, it’s very say cause I already had planned for this school year and now I have to start from scratch. It is sad.”

Marion Ali
“What does it do in terms of your travel arrangement, do you have to relocate or travel everyday?”

Henry Castaneza
“I think it will be very difficult for me cause I live in San Ignacio and I will now have to travel everyday from San Ignacio to Belmopan, plus I’m studying at Sacred Heart so it will be very difficult for me to meet all of these things because of being transferred. It was five of us, we were just told that we were going to be transferred to another school or we’ll lose our jobs. Two teachers that were on staff last year are being taken out, myself and anther teacher Ms. Ezra Delangel. That leaves Succotz with only twelve teachers. Now there are going to be about two or three classes that exceed forty students, which is almost impossible to learn in that situation. I don’t know if you could take a look at the classrooms. They are about fifteen feet by fifteen feet, how will they fit forty students in there?”

Castaneza called late this evening to say that during another meeting with Cathers, he was informed that he was not being transferred anymore.