The newly elected TTUTA president Crystal Ashe after winning by a landslide, plans to lobby the government to re-negotiate the 2020 to 2023 bargaining period which was settled on the eve of this country's general election.
Ashe is asking for negotiations to start at the same 10 percent as with public servants, particularly as the settlement was not auctioned.
00:00The Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association has a new leader, Mr. Crystal Ash, a seasoned educator with more than three decades of experience.
00:11He has assumed the presidency promising significant changes for the nation's teachers.
00:16So I was an OJT, went on to be teacher, went on to be head of department, went on to be principal for 11 years and now a school supervisor.
00:24And actually, I'm the first supervisor to assume the leadership of tutor. It has never been done in history.
00:30I didn't mention that to anybody else, but that is a fact.
00:34There's never been a situation where a supervisor has been the president or any other national officer of tutor.
00:40So you are a ministry employee in that case? Well, I mean, just like teachers, but...
00:44Yeah, yeah, just like teachers, all of us, yeah.
00:47From starting as an on-the-job trainee, Ash worked his way up through teaching ranks to become a principal and now a school supervisor.
00:55In 2019, school supervisors like him were officially recognized as members of tutor, opening the door to leadership roles previously unavailable.
01:05Tutor started to represent them in 2019. It wasn't before. So before, tutors were under PSE. And in 2019, they started to represent them. So tutor is now the recognized majority unit.
01:17Now, as the first ever school supervisor to lead tutor, Ash emphasizes the value of experience and advocacy for educators across the country.
01:26I was approached by Mr. Irish Dohaka, who is the present first vice president of tutor. He is the incumbent. He has been there for three years. And he went up to this election unopposed. So there was nobody opposing his position.
01:39So Mr. Dohaka reached out to me and said, listen, because he knew of me from other persons. And he said, Mr. Ash, I'm looking for somebody. I want to form a team. I'm not satisfied with the leadership of tutor at this point in time. And what is going on?
01:50And I would need people with a particular mindset in terms of goals and terms of work ethics. And he's a very hard worker. That is why he's unopposed. So he identified me as a candidate of choice. And that's the end of the story. I spoke about it with my friends and my family. I prayed about it and so on. And after a week, I gave him a decision. And he was very satisfied with the decision. I am also elated that I would have taken up the opportunity to serve our nation's teachers.
02:16His candidacy came at a time when change was welcomed, leading to his resounding win with 3,546 of the 6,739 votes cast for that position. That's more than half of the electorate in tutor.
02:34There were six candidates vying for the position of president. And if you add the total of the five other candidates besides myself, it's not good to add up to what I would have made. I would still be in front of them at least about 350. So I surpassed all of the votes that they would have received.
02:54So the membership, it shows clearly that the membership, one, they wanted change and two, they believed in me and they had a level of confidence in me.
03:02His win was decisive. Members clearly signaled a desire for change and placed their trust in his leadership.
03:09In schools, you have persons acting and performing duties in administrative positions and so on. And if a school doesn't have a good foundation or is not rooted in a good foundation, then you will have issues. You will have the school not being functioning as how it's supposed to be.
03:25So we need these principals to get, you need to appoint permanent principals. You can't simply have schools and people acting for 10, 15 years and so on. And that is what is happening and people are not aware.
03:34Ash tells TV6 his immediate priorities include improving school leadership stability, ensuring adequate resources and addressing gaps in teaching conditions.
03:46In the budget presentation just days ago, the finance minister, Devindranath Tanku, announced that government will be ratifying negotiations settled in April, that is, on the eve of the general election.
03:57Those negotiations include the teaching service which settled on the 5% wage increase offer for the 2020-2023 bargaining period.
04:08So, I would have heard the Honourable Minister of Finance, his authorities and so on in Parliament, and I know that he would have said that the Prime Minister said that she wants to ensure them to return to the negotiating table, in terms of these things, right?
04:24So, I am willing, with my comrades, the same tutor, to return once we are given the opportunity. And we will seek that opportunity. We're not simply waiting on them. We will be writing them to ensure that we are given the opportunity.
04:36Ash said it's a matter of equity for everyone.
04:39What we are simply asking to do is to be given a fair wage. We are willing to go because teachers go above and beyond.
04:45And fun fact, when Ash isn't on the education front, you'd never believe where you'd find him.
04:53To be honest with you, right now, I'm looking to go and see about my pigs on my farm. I have a family farm, a pig farm, where we have pigs and so on, so I'm going to feed them and wash pen and so on.
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