Monrose
Temporary teachers across the island are led to work during the summer vacation period, but are not paid for that service.
However, re-elected President of the St Lucia Teachers’ Union (SLTU) Julian Monrose told St Lucia News Online (SNO) in an exclusive interview today, April 8 that he will use his new term in office to ensure that this matter is addressed at the soonest possible time.
Monrose told SNO that temporary teachers need to get a ‘better deal’ than the one currently extended to them.
The contract of a temporary is effective from the beginning of the academic year – September 1 to July 31. And though they are required report to work in the month of August, they do not receive remuneration.
“It is unfair to these teachers,” Monrose said.
The SLTU president said this matter was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Education and officials there have since indicated that they will work to have the matter corrected. However, during the payment period for the last academic year, the mentioned category of teachers did not receive a salary for the month of August. The SLTU was told that it had not been budgeted for that year.
With the 2014/2015 national budget expected to be presented soon, the SLTU is hoping that this will be included. Monrose told SNO that there are approximately 200 temporary teachers in the local education system who have been affected by this. He is hopeful that the issue is brought to a closure and the educators are satisfied in the end.
Besides this, the re-elected SLTU president said he is hoping to address another burning issue affecting teachers’ on the island – the teacher-to-pupil ratio.
While admitting that the ratio at the nursery and primary school levels is adequate, which stands at one to 25 and one to 30, respectively, he said the ratio of teachers-to-pupils at the secondary level is not realistic.
He explained that four years ago the union was able to negotiate the teacher-to-pupil ratio for the nursery and primary school levels.
However, the class size in secondary schools is where the issue lies. While the teacher-to-pupil ratio at most secondary schools is approximately one to 17, Monrose believes that this is sometimes more for specific subjects, like languages and mathematics. He told SNO that this makes it difficult for the teachers to deliver the curriculum effectively.
The SLTU president said every child has different learning styles and in order to get better results from them, the teacher to pupils ratio must be taken into consideration. He said teachers have to cater for slow learners, as well as those who are fast, but noted that in order to do this they must have a proper classroom setting to work with the pupils, in order to produce better results. The SLTU, he said, hopes to bring up this issue for discussion with the Ministry of Education during a future meeting.
Monrose said he hopes to make these issues a priority during his new term in office. He told SNO that the general message that teachers during the recent election campaign gave was that they want the union to remain strong, vibrant and stable.
Teachers, he said, also requested that the union work to keep up its work so that they can continue working for a decent salary. Monrose said he hopes to maintain that to ensure that the island’s educators are satisfied.
The SLTU represents some 1900 teachers island-wide.