TTUTA CALLS OUT THA

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TTUTA Tobago officer Bradon Roberts is calling on THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and  Education Secretary Zorisha Hackett to address immediately, matters of concern  to contract teachers. Mr. Roberts told TV6 News that he expects nothing less from the THA in dealing with  this matter once and for all. Elizabeth Williams spoke with Mr. Roberts and has this report

Transcript

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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