Student aides protested in front of the Ministry of Education’s South Eastern Education District Building in Rio Claro yesterday, over the non-renewal of some of their contracts.
The student aides assist special needs students with their lessons and complete tasks and 78 of them were employed in the Ministry’s Student Support Services Division (SSSD). According to the protesters, there were 11 in the southeastern district but the Minister held interviews and only recalled three while terminating the others.
They said in Port-of-Spain, there are 30 aides but two were recalled and the others were terminated. The aides claimed the same is being done in other educational districts.
“So then what will happen to the students who need special attention? And what about the workers who have been working on three months’ contract for years now seeing about these children?” one of them asked.
Last September, when the Ministry advertised vacancies for student aides, there were mixed reactions, with some praising the move, saying it would help students with special needs keep up with their classes.
However, there was criticism of the low-level educational requirements to become a student aide.
Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said 78 student aides were engaged on short-term contracts. She said the ministry was in a position to regularise 68 student aides on three-year contracts, including 50 of those currently on short-term contracts.
“So, 50 of the 78 will transition to longer contracted periods within the next two weeks. Based on need and performance, additional student aides may be engaged beyond the 68 hired on three-year contracts. Specific instructions have been issued that no student aide will be removed from the student they are assigned to before the end of the school year,” she said.
Gadsby-Dolly said the SSSD is under evaluation and recommendations for staffing will be carried forward.