MOE Assumes Responsibility for Full Teachers Salary  

Minister of Education, Francis Fonseca, in his contributions to today’s budget debate, announced that his ministry is assuming full responsibility for the payment of one hundred percent of the salary and benefits for all teachers in government aided secondary and tertiary institutions. He noted that this commitment has increased the ministry’s wage expenditure to two hundred and ten million dollars. Minister Fonseca also took a jab at the members of the Belize National Teachers Union who participated in a press conference in Belmopan a day before the municipal elections. Here is more.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“The government of Belize and the ministry of education commits to assuming full responsibility for the payment of one hundred percent salary and benefit for all government aided secondary and tertiary teachers and support staff effective 2024. That is in this year’s budget, minister speaker. This commitment will benefit over nine hundred teachers at the secondary and tertiary levels as we;; as one hundred and ninety-five support staff. The budget allocation will witness an increase in salary and benefits amounting to approximately fourteen million dollars resulting in a total expenditure on two hundred and twenty million dollars for teachers in salaries and support benefits over the next five years. With this initiative the ministry aims to incentivize quality teaching practices, implement result based education and ensure proper accountability among all secondary and tertiary institutions and their staff. This is big, this is something our teachers, Belize National Teachers Union and even managing authorities have been advocating for, fighting for, pushing for, seventeen years and it is this government that made the decision, not an easy decision. These are big money we are talking about. It is no wonder, if I can say this, because I have heard form a lot of teachers. There still a few UDPs who want to create mischief, there are a few left, shrinking day by day. So they tried to create some mischief before the municipal elections, but they were met with absolute silence form the teachers, because the teachers understand that we respect them, we are working with them and we are doing our very best to assist them.”