And now, to the teachers…there was no school across most of the country today - as teachers paid no heed to warnings and remonstrations from the Ministry of Education and went right ahead with their national rally and demonstration in Belmopan.
The BNTU is the most powerful and organized union in the country, and today in the capital, they surely showed their muscle and their anger at the Barrow Administration - first by shutting down the education system and second by flooding the capital with thousands of protestors.
Courtney Weatherburne was in Belmopan:...
Courtney Weatherburne reporting
Closed windows, chained gates and an empty play ground - that is what you found at most schools across the country today. At other schools, the classrooms were open but the kids were just idly hanging around on the compound. That's because teachers from all over country were protesting in the streets of the capital city.
Walking in double lines, the teachers took their demands and chants to the Civic Center where the over 3,000 teachers crowded the area with their posters in hand.
But the action started inside with several bold speeches.
Luke Palacio - BNTU, President
"Enough is enough, and it comes to a stop today."
Kathleen Flowers - Bze. City Branch
"It is not only about the 3. It is for.... and so today because we understand what our country means, it means the place that we will live in the future, it means the place that we have to live in now and if now things are not right then now we have to fix it and BNTU is proud, strong and united."
Pastor Luis Wade - Plus TV
"All of the things we are fighting for whether COLA or teachers or the churches, they the cane farmers, Maya associations. You know, they have one Dean-nominator in common. One Dean-nominator in common, who is saying no to the public accounts committee, one Dean-nominator. Who is saying no to the integrity commission, who is saying no to the 13th senator? Who is saying no and refusing to sign the anticorruption convention? Who is stopping the senate select committee from rolling the way it is supposed to? We have one Dean-nominator in common. He is saying it's political. When friend-friend drive the Prado into the sea it wasn't politics was it? When son-son moved to the top of Telemedia and BTL getting hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, it wasn't politics then was it? When Sister-sister for a whole year was a CEO of nothing but collect hundreds of thousands of dollars to do nothing, while teachers work every day and can't get their proper pay its not politics then is it?"
BNTU Rep - Toledo Rural
"We as the Belize National Teachers Union (BNTU) will fight a fight to win. You know what hurts me a lot? In fact, while coming on the bus with our teachers were kinda concerned. They asked me, if I think our pay will get deducted. I asked them, would you prefer sacrifice a 
day for your country or do you prefer sacrifice your entire life for your country to still be safe?"
Those speeches energized the crowd and it turned into a big celebration of solidarity.
But after all those speeches, it was time to hit the streets again but this time straight to the steps of the assembly building, where their songs and chants echoed.
Everything was calm with teachers singing their Union song, and the 50 plus officers standing in formation were making sure of that too.
That's of course until this well-known PUP supporter had to be shoved by SPU officers for being loud and unruly.
Things got even more complicated when others in the crowd charged at the officers. He was finally subdued and taken to the police station where he was released. But behind that political sideshow, the teachers got their message across, in numbers and in their resolute hardline message.
As noted in the story, we counted three thousand teachers, but the Union claims six thousand, which is two times that number.
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