Education Minister Says Teachers Allowances and Increments are Resolved

Education Minister Francis Fonseca has given an update on the delayed increments and allowances for teachers. As we reported, the Belize National Teachers Union had threatened to take industrial action in early December when the government missed the payment deadline. The Ministry of Education then set its own deadline and honored it by paying a lump sum to the respective school managements. However, this led to new issues, with some teachers still not receiving their compensation. According to Fonseca, the matter has now been resolved.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“I think for the most part.  I think there may be a few individual cases outstanding, but I think for the most part, based on our reports that we have received back from our managing authorities, we feel that over ninety-five 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 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 and we’re planning another meeting, I think we’re scheduling it for the twenty-third of this month, January, where we will, it’s called a stakeholder meeting, an all-day meeting where we will have the Ministry of Education, we’ll have the BNTU, managing authorities.  We’ll also bring in the treasury department, the accountant general, social security, where we will have an all-day sit-down to discuss any outstanding issues and address any concerns moving forward.”