Posted: Thursday, January 16, 2025. 11:12 am CST.
By Aaron Humes: Minister of Education Francis Fonseca believes the crisis that could have blown up this month over outstanding payments to teachers – salaries, increments and so on – has largely been averted, but will know for sure next week when an all-day stakeholders’ meeting is held with the Belize National Teachers’ Union (BNTU) and others.
Speaking on Wednesday, Fonseca said that based on reports back to the Ministry from school management authorities, “over 95 percent of these issues have been resolved, and we have engaged with the BNTU of course since the start of the year and we are working on any specific individual cases that they bring to our attention; as soon as we find out about them we try to resolve them. So I feel good about where we are.”
The meeting, set for January 23, will feature in addition to the Ministry and BNTU representatives, the managing authorities, the Treasury Department, Accountant General and Social Security to discuss any outstanding issues and address concerns moving forward.
The Union had threatened industrial action this month if all payments had not been met by the end of December, as authorized by members; even before Christmas vacation, there had still been issues with some teachers receiving their payments. But while Fonseca said the BNTU would act on the advice of their membership, he thinks things will not escalate: “We believe that we have acted in good faith, that we have done everything to respond in a positive, respectful way to all of their concerns. We believe that the process we have put in place addresses all of the outstanding issues and we have put in place as I said, a mechanism for dealing with all future issues, so that we communicate respectfully, that we have open dialogue, and I think the membership of the BNTU understands that, they appreciate it, they respect that we are acting in good faith.”
Digitization of outstanding records continues and things should be smoothed out by the start of the new school year in September, Fonseca asserted, adding that “…what we want to put in place is a system that will benefit everyone moving forward, so that this will not be a problem for any future Ministry of Education, for any future teachers.”
Further meetings after January 23 are also being planned, Fonseca concluded.
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