At the top of the newscast, we told you about the press conference held by the BNTU as they responded to the charges laid publicly by the Minister of Education.
But, they only brushed over the PSE results, where ,as we've shown you, thousands of primary school children did very poorly.
So, we asked them about it directly, and they told us that they see something seriously wrong with it's validity currently in the primary school system.
Here's how they explained why:
Endeavora Jorgenson - Naitonal Security, BNTU
"The disconnect between the curriculum and the assessment and we as a society tend to be too exam driven. Way back when we had 33% pf teachers trained - you had great results, I mean it's not like you can say because 54% here you're going to get 54%. There is absolutely no correlation between trained teachers and the exam results. The disconnect is between the curriculum and the assessment so there has to be serious conversation - what purpose is PSE serving today? Because now you don't need it, in fact the one purpose its serving, it to a certain extent create a level of mediocrity because they are saying if you get less than 50% then they will give the school more money. So there's a bit of a little disconnect because we should be rewarding children who are doing more."
Luke Palacio - National President, BNTU
"Every year the PSE results comes out, there is some blame going about and nobody is saying 'look let us get serious about this matter, let us sit down with the parties involved and try to address the situation. What they've done basically over the years is change the name of the exam, everytime with some different name - BNSE, PSE, BPSE - we are not condemning the exam, it needs to be re-examined and that is where that story ends for now."
But for months, we've been reporting on the salary adjustment that the BNTU was in negotiations with the Government of Belize.
Well, this very poor performance on the PSE shows that the education system is failing the students. Despite the obvious effect that the teachers play in the influence of their students, the BNTU says that they absolutely deserve that salary adjustment:
Daniel Ortiz
"How then do you respond then to the Minister's criticism almost that you are not deserving of a pay increase because of the present result."
Luke Palacio
"Well it's not a pay increase, remember, if you look at my pen it says I need a salary adjustment. It's not a raise, it's a salary adjustment and we've explained this in memorial why we are asking for that is to catch up with the cost of living. Let us say something to the Minister and to the Belizean public again, the only persons in this country that have, and we can point to the fact, that have gotten an increase or a decrease (in some instances) in their salary are the persons elected to the National Assembly."
Endeavora Jorgenson
"Teachers are saying that they want a salary adjustment of 30% - they deserve it, they work hard - they not only teach, they plan curriculum, they cook for children, give them pencils, pens - they are their parents, their nurses - they do all kinds of things. So Mr. Minister the teachers indeed deserve their salary adjustment."
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