00:00President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association, Crystal Ash,
00:04says that the education system faces quite a number of challenges,
00:08despite being just days away from the reopening of schools after the July-August vacation period.
00:14Ash says some of the initiatives of the Ministry of Education have begun too late
00:18and are now creating a setback for all stakeholders.
00:22The Ministry of Education, there are a number of things that would have started late,
00:25for example, the vacation repair program, much too late.
00:28We are getting reports of quite a number of schools that have not been identified for repairs whatsoever,
00:35and these schools are in dire need.
00:37Twitter is in the process of compiling a list, which we will share with the Ministry of Education.
00:42In addition to late repairs, or in some cases none at all,
00:45Ash says there is a furniture shortage at many schools,
00:48and he urged the Ministry to do an audit with the aim of replacing the old or missing furniture.
00:53Ash appealed to the Ministry to renew the contracts of social workers,
00:57guidance counselors and business operations assistants,
01:01whom he says form crucial cogs in the education system that cannot be replaced easily.
01:06Non-renewal of contracts of social workers, guidance counselors and business operations assistants.
01:11This is unacceptable.
01:13These places provide integral services to the education system,
01:17and we ask that their contracts be renewed immediately.
01:20You cannot simply deploy 200 OJTs to carry out the functions of our business operations assistants,
01:25bearing in mind that from time to time,
01:28the BUA would come into contact with sensitive information relating to particular schools.
01:32Ash also spoke about teachers' back pay, which they are still waiting on,
01:36and he also thinks that the Ministry needs to find a more efficient rollout of the book grants.
01:40The continued delay in the back pay of our res for teachers for the period 2020-2023,
01:47very, very sad situation where teachers and tutor would have signed on the dotted line in April 2025,
01:54and to date, they're still waiting for their back pay.
01:56Book grants, extremely late, only started to be distributed on the 2nd of September.
02:01How would these parents to receive the book grants in a timely manner and purchase,
02:08go get the checks changed, and usually these checks would have a waiting period
02:11because it would be government checks for those persons who are receiving checks
02:15because I understand and aware that some of them would receive direct to their accounts,
02:19but many of them don't have accounts, so they have to receive checks.
02:22Let us see how this could be done better.
02:24Ash also mentioned the maxi taxi concessionaires.
02:27He says the Ministry needs to ensure that the maxi drivers are paid
02:31so that their vehicles can not only be road-worthy,
02:35but also properly outfitted for transporting the nation's children to and from school.
02:40The tutor president appealed to principals and teachers to take any challenges in stride,
02:46to, quote, ensure that our children receive the best education possible, end quote.
02:50And he emphasized that tutors' releases are never meant to be adversarial, but rather suggestive.
02:56Dominic Ramroop, TV6 News.
