Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion’s (TTUTA) To­ba­go of­fi­cer Bran­don Roberts says ed­u­ca­tion promis­es made dur­ing the last elec­tion have dis­ap­peared and teach­ers are in­creas­ing­ly frus­trat­ed.

He said con­tract teach­ers are de­mor­alised, and un­paid and some are stay­ing away from school.

“I’m very dis­ap­point­ed ... the promis­es made dur­ing the elec­tion have some­how van­ished,” Roberts said. “We are hear­ing now of a low turnout in our sec­ondary schools to­day.”

He said teach­ers, es­pe­cial­ly those on con­tract, feel used every elec­tion cy­cle as they are court­ed with promis­es and then for­got­ten.

“Every elec­tion pe­ri­od, they en­gage these teach­ers and give that promise … 2012, 2016, 2021—noth­ing came of it. What we know is that this may be the third au­dit in the space of eight to ten years,” he said.

Roberts said the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) con­tin­ues to hire con­tract teach­ers in­stead of ex­pand­ing the num­ber of per­ma­nent po­si­tions in sec­ondary schools, leav­ing dozens of ex­pe­ri­enced teach­ers stuck at the bot­tom.

“They can­not take up any mid­dle man­age­ment po­si­tions,” he said.

“They will nev­er be able to be­come a dean or head of de­part­ment or vice prin­ci­pal or prin­ci­pal. All the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem is ben­e­fit­ing from is their labour.”

Roberts al­so re­vealed that the THA owes more than $10 mil­lion in un­paid gra­tu­ity to con­tract teach­ers and con­tin­ues to jug­gle funds to make par­tial pay­ments.

“They mix and match and pull to see how they could get al­lo­ca­tions. They are kick­ing a can down the road,” he said.

Roberts be­lieves the so­lu­tion lies in pre­sent­ing Cab­i­net with prop­er da­ta and a clear case to in­crease the teach­ing es­tab­lish­ment in To­ba­go’s sec­ondary schools.

“We are hid­ing be­hind every elec­tion pe­ri­od with some­body to do an au­dit,” he said.

“Noth­ing has gone to Cab­i­net over the years as any at­tempt to deal with this mat­ter.”

Even the Prime Min­is­ter’s re­cent an­nounce­ment about To­ba­go’s ed­u­ca­tion plans hasn’t brought re­lief, Roberts said.

“I am a bit pleased that the Prime Min­is­ter and the Chief Sec­re­tary had the con­ver­sa­tion, but the ex­cite­ment would come when ac­tion starts,” he said.

“We had a smoke screen of a new sign be­ing put, but that’s as far as it went.”

He said TTUTA has been ask­ing for a meet­ing with Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine since he took of­fice in 2021.

“We don’t even get a con­fir­ma­tion let­ter from the Chief Sec­re­tary,” he said.

Teach­ers don’t want more promis­es in the com­ing elec­tion cam­paign, they want ac­tion, Roberts said.

“I want to sup­port the Sec­re­tary and the Chief Sec­re­tary in say­ing what they did for the con­tract teach­ers,” he said. “I don’t want to hear what they plan to do or why they couldn’t. I want to cel­e­brate what was done.”

Ques­tions sent to Ed­u­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Zor­isha Hack­ett went unan­swered.