00:00Tutor Tobago Officer Braden Roberts is again calling on the THA to provide security of tenure to contract teachers.
00:07He says the statement made by the Chief Secretary on Tuesday the 12th of November is untrue and besides the point.
00:13The Tobago Tutor Officer said the teachers had hope in the THA administration since the Education Secretary and the Chief Secretary were former educators.
00:22When we saw the Chief Secretary and the Secretary, both former contract teachers, the contract teachers had hope.
00:28I made it my duty, working along with my comrades in Trinidad, to get some data from the schools in Trinidad, present it to the division.
00:36We have been working together but I'm getting the feeling that they're handing the hand halfway.
00:42So they're presenting themselves as if they are trying to work on this and I'm very much well surprised.
00:48The Secretary led her team, and she was a contract teacher as well, taking the division that she leads now to court
00:56for the same issue that they are dragging their feet on.
01:01I don't understand the language of the Chief Secretary. I believe it's very disingenuous at this moment and I would want us to get serious.
01:10We are not about the fanfare and the political comments and so on. They are contract teachers who need to be treated with.
01:17President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association, Martin Lumpkin, said the Chief Secretary and his administration must do better.
01:25He said contract teachers in Tobago should be treated with respect because without them, the education system would fail.
01:32Adding, this is not the time for politics.
01:35At the end when they retire, there are no benefits as such. Have they been getting their contract authority as well?
01:43These are some of the issues. Let us deal with it. This is taking far too long.
01:47Let us put aside the politics. Let us put aside whatever issues there are and let us treat with it.
01:54Deal with the establishment. If it needs to go to cabinet, let it be done. Do the audit properly and let us get it done.
02:03Contract teachers are used to fill the voids in the teaching service in situations where a teacher may be on leave.
02:10In most cases, contract teachers are absorbed by the teaching service commission and appointed as permanent teachers.
02:16Roberts said that Tobago had challenges over the years with adequate teaching staff.
02:21But now there is a delay in appointing contract teachers.
02:24Sharla Kesto, TV6 News.
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