In the face of a threat of industrial action from the Bahamas Union of Teachers, Minister of Education Alfred Sears warned late Tuesday that teachers would suffer the consequences of their actions, and he said what the government is offering educators is “groundbreaking”.
In a statement released earlier on Tuesday, union executives said that teachers would not be completing any report cards or confidential cards. They also said that teachers would not be taking part in the distribution of report cards on National Report Card Day on Thursday if the government failed to agree to the unionﾒs demands for salary increases.
But Minister Sears said the government is “shocked and dismayed at the unwarranted and irresponsible threats” made by the BUT.
“They are under obligation by contract to submit those grades in a timely fashion and to penalize our students, I cannot imagine that any teacher would penalize students at the most critical stage of their academic careers,” said the minister, during a press conference at his Thompson Boulevard office.
“If teachers follow through with this threat of not completing and distributing report and confidential cards those twelfth graders who seek to move to tertiary education would not receive the very transcripts that they need for acceptance.”
He said the failure to complete report cards would also prevent the accurate assessment of student achievement for students at all grade levels in the public school system.
“This would effectively hinder the ability of schools to determine whether certain students are fit for promotion and also rob anxious parents of the opportunity of gauging the progress of their children,” Minister Sears said.
The BUT has also threatened that teachers would not participate in teacher-development workshops, summer school sessions and related summer activities.
But Minister Sears said that by not taking part in these workshops and development programmes, teachers would miss out on an opportunity to upgrade teaching methods and thereby enhance classroom performance.
“If teachers fail to teach summer extended learning programmes, they would deny low achieving students an opportunity to develop their skills and improve their performance,” he added.
While expressing hopes that teachers would reconsider their position regarding industrial action, the minister warned that they would have to suffer the consequences if they make any illegal moves.
“I can speak without equivocation that this (industrial action) would be so grave that I donﾒt see how any government would not enforce the law; this is a very serious thing,” Minister Sears said.
He also attempted to set the record straight on the issue of planned salary increases and provided what he said were the facts.
The Bahamas Union of Teachers has said that half the teachers have not received salary increases or increments for up to 10 years.
But Minister Sears said that from 1996 to 2006 teachers received three salary increases, totaling $5,050 added to the base salary of each teacher.
In fact, he said, in 1997 teachers received the largest salary increase of all public officers in the amount of $2,650 per year.
Minister Sears also said that in 1999, teachers received “significant” increases in the annual increments added to base salaries. These increments were increased from $300, $350, $400 and $500 to a fixed amount of $700, he said.
“Had the union accepted the governmentﾒs salary proposal teachers would have received $1,200 in back pay added to the base for the 2005/2006 fiscal year along with a $300 lump sum,” Minister Sears said. “This would mean that by the end of June of this year teachers would have benefited from an extra $1,500 added to their pay packet.”
He said that as of July 2006, teachersﾒ monthly salaries would have increased by $200. Further, the government has undertaken to increase the minimum salary for a teacher with a Bachelorﾒs degree and a teaching certificate from $22,800 to $25,000 by July 2007.
Minister Sears said that the government is offering teachers a lump sum payment of $300 each. Teachers would also receive a $1,200 per annum raise retroactive to last year July.
He said that educators would also get an additional $1,200 raise effective July 1 of this year. And they would get another $1,200 raise on July 1, 2008.
They would also be entitled to additional pay based on the results of a compensation study and they would also be entitled to annual increments.
“When the salary proposal and the dollar figure for the concessions given to teachers are calculated, the teaching service would have received, by far, the best pay packet of all public officers,” Minister Sears said.
“The concessions offered to teachers are groundbreaking and a number of them are exclusive to teachers in the public school system. These are the facts.”
Some of the concessions featured in the governmentﾒs proposal include sabbatical for 12 months with full pay after 10 years of service; a paid one week paternity leave every three years; and adoption leave.
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
