Last night, we showed you a few choice parts of Education Minister Patrick Faber's late evening press conference. This was his direct response to the Opposition Party's manifesto launch of their Plan Belize. This policy proposal explains how they intend to address the country's education system if they are elected as the next government administration.
From the Education Minister's perspective, several key elements of the PUP's proposals either have a flawed premise, are already implemented in the education sector, or they are flashy, but empty promises.
As part of the PUP's Plan Belize launch, Former Education Minister Francis Fonseca went into a detailed explanation of his party's assessment of the Ministry's performance during Faber's tenure. You'll remember from Wednesday's event that the PUP's Plan Belize launch features reforms, such as free education from pre-school to junior college, and equal opportunity funding grants for needy children from rural communities.
All that sounds expensive, but the Opposition Party outlined cost-saving measures that they would implement if given the chance in elected office. One of those measures includes a reduction in the number of non-teachers employed at the Ministry from 17% to 10%, and from the PUP's perspective that represents several millions of dollars in savings annually.
Yesterday, the Education Minister focused on that part of the plan, and he publicly asked if the PUP is talking about retrenchment. Here's how that conversation went:
Hon. Patrick Faber - Minister of Education
"What I have gathered is that he is saying that there are - I think he quoted a figure of about 1200 non-educator employees of the Ministry of Education that he would reduce significantly or that the plan aims to reduce significantly. So that more of that money that is used to pay such employees - according to him - can be put into really educating our children. My question to that would be what kind of employees are you talking about? If we're to take his number as accurate, 1200 employees, who are non-educators, meaning that they are not teachers, but they work for the Ministry of Education, we ought to be able to look and to see who those employees are. What he is not telling you is that the 350 or so school wardens - for instance - are non-educators hired in the Ministry of Education. So, is it the school wardens that you're going to fire and get rid of in order to put more into education? Is it the truancy officers who are not educators? Is it the school bursars from all across the country that the Government pays and that is on the payroll? Or is it the school watchmen and the relief watchmen work at government schools and government buildings, because the ministry has education centers in all of the districts and the ITVET's and so on. Is it the secretaries of these schools? Is it the clerks from the various departments of the Ministry? These are the people who make up the non-educator staff of the Ministry of Education. So, I really want him to be more specific. But, I think that the overarching principle here is that he is saying that people will lose their jobs and that there will be some kind of retrenchment for these workers that I've just mentioned. And so, all those persons who fall in the categories that I just mentioned the need to be very concerned. These people just got a sound warning from the People's United Party that should they become the government, they will be reduced, or they will be terminated."
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