The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) says frus­tra­tion is mount­ing over the "dis­re­spect and in­jus­tice" by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to teach­ers at Ear­ly Child­hood Care and Ed­u­ca­tion (EC­CE) schools. It warns it is now time for ac­tion.

A re­lease, is­sued by TTUTA's gen­er­al sec­re­tary, Pe­ter Wil­son, stat­ed teach­ers were grow­ing in­creas­ing­ly fed up with the "in­or­di­nate de­lay" by the min­istry in re­spond­ing to their con­cerns. TTUTA said over the last three years the EC­CE teach­ers had been de­mand­ing prop­er salaries and recog­ni­tion of their sta­tus. TTUTA said the Gov­ern­ment must move to:

• ap­point EC­CE teach­ers in es­tab­lished po­si­tions;

• pay EC­CE teach­ers prop­er salaries;

• im­ple­ment a sys­tem of equiv­a­lence of qual­i­fi­ca­tions and ex­pe­ri­ence;

• es­tab­lish a ne­go­ti­at­ed sep­a­ra­tion pack­age with TTUTA for teach­ers wish­ing to leave the ser­vice; and

• es­tab­lish mech­a­nisms to al­low teach­ers to up­grade their qual­i­fi­ca­tions.

Wil­son said: "The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion can­not con­tin­ue to ex­ploit the ded­i­ca­tion and ex­pe­ri­ence of the EC­CE teach­ers and dis­miss their worth."