00:00Tutor Tobago officer Braden Roberts is calling on THA chief secretary Farley
00:04Augustin and education secretary Zorisha Hackett to address immediately matters
00:10of concern to contract teachers. Mr. Roberts told TV6 News that he expects
00:15nothing less from the THA in dealing with this matter once and for all.
00:19Elizabeth Williams spoke with Mr. Roberts and has this report.
00:23So here's what Tutor is not tolerating. The past year of being willing to help that we are
00:28getting from the division they're having that person that they're trying to work
00:31on this thing. We do not want on the campaign trail what we're hoping and
00:35planning to do. It is time to work on it now and I'm calling on the chief
00:38secretary and the secretary of education for us to get our act together and deal
00:42with the contract teachers once and for all.
00:44Tutor Tobago officer Braden Roberts is calling on the chief secretary Farley
00:48Augustin and education secretary Zorisha Hackett to do better especially as they
00:54were former educators. So the division over years they started the
00:59conversations give the indication that we're working on it and then it dies. I
01:02would not want that to happen this time around. I'm very critical of the secretary
01:07and the chief secretary. They were just among those those persons so we can't
01:11forget the people you were just among because you are no longer feeling that
01:14pain. Mr. Roberts said what he does not want is the matter being used as a
01:19political football next year. We had a meeting but when the tutor came to that
01:23meeting prepared and we are now calling on the division for us to step up. I do
01:28not want this going into the elections next year and then as I said I promise
01:31that my magazine that we are not prepared for. Roberts said if contract
01:35teachers refused to work the education system in Tobago would collapse. If the
01:40contract teachers are not to come out to school, schools won't be able to function.
01:43So we are not to just have conversations with persons who would tell us they
01:47believe that the establishment there's no justification to increase and improve
01:52their establishment. We need to do the work. We need to approach the cabinet and let the
01:56conversations take place there. Elizabeth Williams TV6 News. Chief
02:01Secretary Farley Augustine when asked to respond to the issue of contract
02:05teachers in Tobago said all efforts are being made to address the concerns by
02:09tutor. Mr. Augustine spoke on Tuesday following a retreat by the TTA to
02:14reprioritize projects. Normally with contract employment you tend to operate
02:21within the four boundaries, the four walls of your contract. We have been
02:28revisiting that to allow for certain privileges and I'll give you an example
02:32of one. It is not ordinary or normal that contracted teachers for example will be
02:40afforded the opportunity for study leave or to to get time off to go and study
02:44within the contract. That is normally attached to those on the establishment
02:51or those public service teachers so to speak. Those were established
02:57teachers and that's one of the areas that we have started relaxing and
03:03changing terms of contracts to allow for that to happen. Those established
03:10teachers received an increase in salary recently and the division has been
03:16looking at what we can do for the upcoming contracts because contracts
03:21have a definite period, might be two years, three years. So we are looking
03:26at what we can do when those contracts come up for renewal in terms of bringing
03:31those contracted teachers much more in line with the counterparts on the
03:36establishment as well. So we have been looking at ways to improve the lives
03:43and the livelihoods of our contracted teachers.
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