Today (Friday) I sit and reflect on why I chose to stay home in solidarity with TTUTA members. I have been teaching in a prestige boys school for nine years. I have a master's in educational leadership. I returned home from teaching abroad to make a positive impact on young people and to do my part in making a difference.
I have always known that teaching involves a mediocre salary; I firmly believe teaching is a vocation. I enjoy my job. I feel a sense of pride and success when I witness our young males develop and become amazing young men. The day-to-day battle in the classroom, with 35 male adolescents, is exhausting but the positives outweigh the negatives.
More and more, however, I have been exposed to the frustration of working for the Ministry of Education and I understand why teachers are protesting. We are battling salary negotiations at the moment but that is only part of the issue. Many of us are battling for the salary already negotiated.
All teachers employed by the ministry start on contract until they are made permanent. Once we become permanent, we enter a system of established salary scales where we are entitled to a salary increment every year for the first nine years based on a performance appraisal. We then enter a second salary scale associated with longevity in the service. But these increments are not received on a timely basis.
I have been teaching two years on contract and seven years permanent. I have remained at the pay scale of a permanent teacher in his/her 4th year, and so I receive $879 a month less than is due to me, and have been paid the wrong salary for the last three years. There are also teachers who have been appraised, promoted and are operating as Teacher III, heads of departments or deans who do not receive the revised salaries for years after their promotion.
There is no redress when teachers do not receive their real salary. We are torn between passion for our work and unfair treatment from the Ministry of Education. Like the majority of teachers, I will return to work on Monday and continue to give of my best, knowing I am being unfairly treated. How many people would be able to go to work every day while being paid less than they are due?
Lara Littlepage
Westmoorings