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The Catholic Church which is also heads the nation’s largest School Management has publicly denounced the Teaching Services Commission proposed by the Ministry Of Education. But now, the Teachers’ Union has come out in support of the commission. A position paper from the BNTU says that, “there is an urgent need for fairness, improvements and change, if we are to expect better results....” Referring to the church-state model, it says, “In any relationship, there comes a time when a review and renewal is necessary...”

And getting to the heart of the antagonism between church management and the unions, the release laments that, “Every year we are constantly being challenged with the many cases of injustices and lack of due process brought against teachers.” It concludes by saying that, “...the Teaching Services Commission is not about religion nor is it a proposed threat to the church/state partnership... The greatest deterrents to quality education in present day Belize has been and continues to be religious and party politics....BNTU endorses the Teaching Services Commission....”

So now the Ministry of Education has the Teachers Union – which represents the majority of the teachers in favour, and the Catholic School Management which represents the majority of the schools, opposed. So what next? Well, speaking with Education Minister Patrick Faber today he told us that he is happy to have the support of the union but, they would like unanimity and they are still hopeful about gaining the support of the Catholic schools management. He said he has high hopes for a meeting with the Catholic Bishop next week. Faber also noted that changes proposed in the consultations are presently being made to the originally proposed model.

But after that’s done, he expects to take it to Cabinet for approval before the end of September and expects to take it to House in October.