B.N.T.U. Says MOE Budget Not Trickling Down to Classrooms  

And, it has become common to hear teachers complain about a lack of resources at these press conferences. But, in light of the World Bank report, Keisha Williams the union’s National Treasurer took a different approach. She questioned how much of the government’s investments in education, as highlighted in the report, are trickling down to the classroom. She also chided the Ministry of Education for endlessly piloting projects with no real analysis, only to further burden teachers.

 

Keisha Williams, National Treasurer, B.N.T.U.

“Let us take a look at resources for example, if you are to ask any teacher across the length and breadth of this country, how are they doing as far as resources are concerned. Who is providing the resources to them? They will tell you that they have to dive in pocket for a lot of the resources. In fact, most of the resources that are used in the classrooms teachers have to provide out of their pocket for. There is no denying that the budget allocation in this country has a huge lump sum that goes to education. Where the money goes is the question that the general public needs to ask. Is it trickling down in the classrooms? As far as the oversight of the system, the Ministry of Education is responsible to make sure that the system is properly running, has policies to address the day to day running of the institutions the provide management for, they are responsible top provide insight and strategies to bridge the learning gap that they recognize. Instead of that we have a lot of pilot projects coming to us as teachers, they are piloted but there is no analyzing of these projects at the end. The teachers is burdened with more work because these pilot projects come with extra finances that does not trickle down to the teachers. The general maintenance of the system, it is the general responsibility of the Ministry of Education and not the teacher.”