00:00A unique situation where the leave of personnel from Tobago has to make its way to Trinidad, has to be
00:06classified, then sent back.
00:08But in the process of doing that, you have documents being lost.
00:12And then people cannot get their money, they cannot get their gratuity and so on because these documents are lost.
00:17But these documents are not lost by the teachers themselves.
00:20It was lost by personnel of the Ministry of Education.
00:22A major termite issue at some Tobago schools and the lack of furniture are cause for concern, Mr. Ash said.
00:29There's some areas with respect to furniture.
00:31There are a lot of schools in Tobago lacking furniture because you have the termite situation.
00:36Serious termite situation where a lot of these schools basically they're running on zero furniture.
00:41That is a fact.
00:42Then you have situation in terms of staffing.
00:45Staffing short, some schools, some principals are asked to execute their duties and run their schools efficiently.
00:49How can you execute your duties efficiently if it is that you don't have the staff that you require to
00:54do your job properly?
00:54Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association Tutor Tobago Officer Dion Rodriguez says the longstanding challenges facing teachers on the island
01:03must be urgently addressed by the Ministry of Education and the Division of Education.
01:09Rodriguez told TV6 News that educators in Tobago continue to grapple with a number of unresolved issues, including staffing shortages,
01:19delayed appointments and limited resources in schools.
01:22The tutor Tobago representative is calling on the Ministry and the Division to move beyond discussions and implement concrete measures
01:31that will bring lasting relief to educators across the island.
01:36Presently there's no one in Tobago authorized to classify leave and that's the main challenge.
01:42So what has happened is that the leave had left Trinidad and were returned to Tobago and they are presently
01:49in boxes in Tobago but there's no authorization letter so that Tobago at presently cannot authorize those leave.
01:57And we know the disadvantages of being on contract.
02:00Firstly, financially there are teachers in this space that are doing the same job as in-service teachers and they
02:06are being paid just the bare minimum.
02:07As a matter of fact, sometimes they go over and above working on contract and we are saying that the
02:12contract issue needs to be addressed and needs to be addressed with some level of immediacy within the Tobago space
02:19as well.
02:19Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
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