Ministry’s Arrogance Meets Teachers’ Contempt

Elizabeth Pridgeon

Last Friday, 19^th February, almost two thousand disgruntled teachers – all of them members of the Belize National Teachers’ Union (BNTU) – congregated outside the House of Representatives in Belmopan to demonstrate against multiple aspects of the Education and Training Bill.
Perhaps the greatest angst was that although members of the BNTU were approached for their opinions and suggestions on the Bill, their amendments were never presented in front of the decision-making committee, and they were fobbed off with some half-hearted lie that their submissions had been received too late to be presented.  Not true, as their amendments and suggestions were provided even before the Minister’s technical team presented theirs.  And so, despite empty rhetoric that “the unions matter” and their opinions will be listened to and acted upon, the BNTU has experienced nothing like what they were promised by the UDP administration.

Not only was the Bill passed – without even considering the suggestions from teachers themselves – but even more offensive to the BNTU is that the second and third readings for the Bill were also introduced last week, with the single intention of rushing through legislation to secure foreign funding.  The BNTU accuses Minister Faber of consciously taking the decision to hurry the bill simply to secure US $15 million – despite knowing full well that widespread dissatisfaction among teachers would be a direct result of his actions.  Thus the Minister – whose vision, according to the Ministry’s website, is to “work in collaboration with all education stakeholders,” seems (somewhat ironically) to have forgotten the single largest group of stakeholders in the entire education sector – the teachers themselves.  According to President of the Orange Walk branch of the BNTU, Ms. Susie Vega, if he had simply delayed the second and third reading and presented the BNTU amendments alongside his team’s amendments, he probably wouldn’t have had teachers demonstrating at the steps of the House of Representatives sitting.

However, others are even less forgiving of Minister Faber’s actions. According to numerous participants, the demonstration was critical to thousands of teachers because, quite simply, the government’s behaviour signals utter disrespect for members of the profession. Representatives of the BNTU have been campaigning for peaceful dialogue with the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Education for months.  BNTU members complain that as a group, teachers were portrayed at the House of Representatives sitting as being unwilling to relinquish corporal punishment within schools, whereas the reality is that teachers have for a while now been very open to discussion on alternative disciplinary action.  A six-month timeframe to completely eradicate corporal punishment from our schools is utter ridicule, particularly in light of the poor training structure and almost non-existent alternative disciplinary methods currently offered to teachers.  According to the BNTU, the union should not in any way be held responsible for the inadequacies of the current system; the Minister has known for a long time that a focussed task force was required to deal with the issue of corporal punishment: the blame for the Minister’s inability to provide one can in no way be shifted onto the shoulders of the BNTU.  Quite simply, to quote the BNTU, “the buck stops at the Ministerial level”.

In addition to this, according to Jaime Panti, BNTU President, it is not simply an issue of re-training staff and promoting different approaches to discipline (which is a huge undertaking in itself) – it is also an issue of defining what corporal punishment is in the first place, which is an issue that has not even begun to be tackled by the Minister.

Aside from these principal issues, several other complaints were voiced by the BNTU at Friday’s demonstration.  The BNTU categorically rejects a tribunal system which will be forced upon its members without any guarantee of independence, nor any protective measures against bias.  Another concern involves the apparent use of criteria in the appointment of the Chair of the Teaching Services Committee, which is unconstitutionally and undemocratically poised to destroy the very fundamentals of the education system.

There is no denying that thousands of teachers are downright disturbed by the course of events unfolding within the Ministry of Education at the moment.  While the demonstration was for the large part peaceful (except for some offensive name-calling), there is no guarantee that teachers’ pacifism will endure further mismanagement from the Ministry.  Already certain branches of the BNTU are vocally critical of the Minister, citing him as “stubborn” and “very arrogant”.  The next demonstration (whenever it may be) will doubtless by far less ‘gentle’ than the last, and far less forgiving of Minister Faber’s mismanagement of the situation.

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