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  • 2 years ago
While teachers at the Early Childhood Care and Education Centres were made to come out to work way ahead of other teaching staff based on their contracts, the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association claims, they were not provided with all of the supplementing resources in line with their return to the job.


Alicia Boucher tells us more.
Transcript
00:00 The 20 days vacation for ECCE teachers is one of the terms in their contract that had
00:06 Tutor fuming about a month ago.
00:08 The association labeled it unfair and the situation subsequently resulted in protest
00:13 action outside of the education ministry.
00:16 It meant that these educators, even if they applied for their vacation during the July-August
00:21 period, generally had to return to work long before teachers in primary and secondary schools
00:27 who would head out to work only days before the new academic year begins.
00:31 President of Tutor Martin Lumpkin says the issue has not been forgotten.
00:35 Tutor has not given up on the terms and conditions, really the contract that was issued to the
00:43 ECCE teachers and to the fact that the legislation needs to be changed.
00:49 We are almost to the end of the vacation of what ECCE teachers were required to report
00:55 for duty to do by and large nothing, just to come to an empty center.
01:03 The ministry of education has pointed to the differences between both sets of educators,
01:08 saying in the past ECCE teachers were allowed to apply for their vacation outside of that
01:14 July-August period, which primary and secondary school teachers are not allowed to do.
01:19 Their vacation leave coincides with the Easter and July-August periods.
01:24 The ministry further contended that ECCE teachers cannot benefit from the two months leave and
01:30 be allowed their 20 days vacation in addition to that.
01:34 According to Tutor, ECCE teachers did turn up to empty centers during the vacation period.
01:40 To monitor and in some instances they had to clean and so Tutor is still not satisfied
01:46 with that and still calling on the ministry of education who issued these contracts to
01:52 ensure that our ECCE teachers are treated as they are supposed to be treated in the
01:59 scheme of the education system.
02:02 Is it that they do send out all of the other relevant staff to accommodate those teachers,
02:07 like let us say security personnel, cleaning staff?
02:12 During the term there are cleaners.
02:14 During this vacation period, the ministry of education did not engage any cleaners.
02:21 So the teachers who occupy were expected to clean the centers as well, which is outside
02:28 of their job description.
02:32 And so we would have advised our ECCE teachers that they should not engage in that sort of
02:37 activity.
02:41 Tutor says it also advised those teachers to seek representation if their place of employment
02:46 caused them to have health and safety concerns.
02:49 On the matter of security, Lamkin tells us, there were guards positioned at the ECCE centers
02:55 during the vacation period.
02:57 Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
03:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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