Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh has lifted the ban on Orville Carrington, second vice-president of Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers' Association (TTUTA), and the union's president Roustan Job says the matter has been resolved.A release issued by the Education Ministry yesterday said Gopeesingh and the TTUTA executive, including Carrington, met at Capital Plaza, Port-of Spain, for about an hour on Wednesday.
Both parties said the meeting was amicable and cordial.The meeting was called to discuss two major issues of contention; the ban on Carrington entering the ministry at Alexandra Street, St Clair, and an allegation that Carrington was involved in a verbal assault matter with a female staff member of the ministry. Job said the minister agreed to rescind the ban and Carrington would be attending the next scheduled regular meeting between the union and the ministry next month.
He said on the second matter, it was agreed that Carrington was not involved in any such incident."It was a case of mistaken identity," he said.Job said Carrington was exonerated and the union expressed the hope that such incidents would never be repeated.The ministry said its investigations into the alleged assault "have concluded that the perpetrator was not in fact a TTUTA official, but rather a member of another stakeholder association. The ministry therefore wishes to publicly disassociate TTUTA from these allegations."
TTUTA and the ministry also gave an undertaking to work together to improve the situation at the Cunupia Secondary School as soon as possible.There has been a high incidence of indiscipline at the school, with students engaging in physical attacks on teachers.Job led a placard protest outside the ministry on Tuesday against Gopeesingh's ban on Carrington.Gopeesingh and Carrington were involved in a verbal clash at the Cunupia school last month.