7 News Belize

BNTU To Hon. Faber: We Don’t Tolerate Incompetence
posted (June 24, 2013)
Viewers may remember the press conference which the Minister of Education, Patrick Faber, held almost 2 weeks ago. It was to account to the nation about the poor performance of the primary school children around the country for the 2013 Primary School Examination.

He made very strong comments, much to the expense of the Belize National Teachers Union, and since then, they've been mostly quiet about it, only indicating to the media that they intend to fully respond.

Well, they did so today, and they focused most of that time to air out long-standing issues which they feel that the public was not fully informed on.

Daniel Ortiz was there today, and he found out that according to the BNTU, there is much blame to go around for what's wrong with education. Here's his report:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
Today, the seats in the room set up at the YWCA were almost filled to capacity with a gathering of teachers, who listened attentively to what the executive members of their union had to say.

BNTU said that it was a press conference, but it looked more like a general meeting, where the media was accommodated to get the message out to the wider public at its conclusion.

Maybe those teachers gathered their wanted to get the message first hand, but it was broadcasted via radio for the nation to hear.

Whatever the show of might was for, and the effects it had, it signaled that the teachers were dissatisfied with the comments made by Minister of Education Patrick Faber.

Their interpretation of those remarks was the first item on the agenda:

Keesha Young - Executive Secretary, BNTU
"Although the Belize National Teachers Union, a major stakeholder in education, was not invited it became apparent to us from the reports made on the evening news that the objective of the Minster's press conference was twofold. While getting into the reasons for what was termed the dismal results of the examination, Minster Faber also found it absolutely necessary and appropriate to utilize that forum to not only attack the integrity of the Belize National Teacher's Union but also to debase and degrade the teachers of this nation."




Kathleen E.B. Flowers - Belize District President, BNTU
"When we're going to be hearing the kind of statements that were brought out by the Minster - well that was where the first injection of disrespect comes. But we are not going to respond in like kind, we are going to put on a different armor."

Even though they mentioned quite a few times that their purpose was not to attack the minister, they threw in a few punches, one of them being a jibe at one his more favorite sayings.




Endeavora Jorgenson - National Secretary, BNTU
"Our minister and other personnel at the Ministry of Education keep talking that 'education is everybody's business' and that could be a good thing and sometimes it can also be a bad thing because when it's everybody's business it becomes nobody's business."

But the most significant response, which they allotted quite an amount of time for, was that they don't defend incompetence or criminal behavior. They also categorically stated that they don't condone it




Luke Palacio - National President, BNTU
"The teacher training we are receiving in Belize needs some serious modifications, we've called and many entities have called for the re-establishment of the Belize Teacher's Training College and this has fallen on deaf ears. The answer to that, the fact of the matter is that if you want to be a nurse, where do you go? You go to a nursing school. You want to be a doctor - you go to a medical school. You want to be a lawyer - you go to laws school. You want to be a teacher - you go to UB and mix up with students who are doing Associate's Degree level classes and say you are being trained as a teacher. They give you 3-6 weeks to do an internship and put you in the classroom - yet they complain about the type of teachers they are putting out."

Endeavora Jorgenson
"For the record Mr. Minister, BNTU does not hire teachers, teachers are hired by managements and government because the governments owns the schools. If ministry is so convince that there are child molesters and other inept teachers - then fire them. At the moment they are paying about 5 years for a principal, they are still paying the principal 5 years - we better pay those child molesters than they stay in the system. So, Mr. Minister do something about your incompetent teachers."

Luke Palacio
"The issue he raised about the BNTU defending child molesters - brothers and sisters we all know that that is a criminal offence in our country. And rule 96of page 134 speaks to 'criminal proceedings'. Once a report has been made to the police, neither the BNTU, the Teacher Service commission can interfere with the work of the police and we know that and we've said that to our teachers every step of the way. You commit a criminal offence then you're going to pay the price."

And expanding on that point, the BNTU also wanted the nation informed that they are unable to police teachers who are suspected to be incompetent and non-functioning.

Endeavora Jorgenson
"For years we have lobbied that all teachers need to belong to the union so that we can then police our teachers - that has not been granted to us. So Mr. Minister how can you compare apples and oranges?"

But, while BNTU agrees that there are teachers who are not performing up to high standards, they say that the Ministry of Education created a problem where it is unethical to just fire teachers on a whim.

Luke Palacio
"The disciplinary procedure speaks that there must be due process, in other words you cannot accuse a teacher and just decide that you're going to dismiss him without following due process and that is where they have been failing and that is what their fear is. Because our union stands ready to defend our members and teachers if their human rights are being violated. When we look at the due process, it means that the management's of the school and those making the allegations, must prove those allegations."

We'll have more from that press conference later on the newscast, where the BNTU directly speaks on the poor PSE results and their justification for a salary adjustment, even in the face of it.

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