00:00Over 400 business operation assistants, better known as BOAs, have been left to wonder whether
00:07their contracts with the Ministry of Education will be renewed after their contracts came to
00:12an end last November. The reality is that people are working, some of them, 20 years now. So if
00:18you're in a job for 20 years, nobody thinks that I'm working for 20 years, I'm going to be sent
00:22home instantaneously like that. And this is what would have happened to these people. I met one
00:26out here this morning because she came, they have a gratuity period, a gratuity package they have to
00:31receive. From since 2019, she's telling me that she has not received. So you're done, you're fired
00:37them basically because you didn't rehire them. And on top of that, the gratuity payment, the lump sum
00:42of money that they're supposed to mind their family with, you're not giving them that as well? That
00:45is not fair. The Ministry of Education can do better than that, man. The tutor president laments that
00:50without the BOAs, the administrative burden falls on the principals.
00:56These BOAs, they're integral to the running of a school. They just sit down and do nothing. They do
01:00quite a lot. And you have the first system, that's the first year infant intake, where they're taking
01:05the infants just now. And the BOAs assist the principals with respect to that as well. And if it
01:10is that you do have it, remember with that first program, I'm not sure if you're aware, everything is
01:14online. Every parent has to register the children online. So if you don't have internet as a parent,
01:20what do you do? Many of them go to the schools and the principals and the BOAs, they facilitate the
01:25process. They sit down with them. They create email addresses for them. The tutor president for the
01:31notes, the contracts of a majority of student support services staff have also expired. So if you remove
01:38all of the elements that you need to assist you to ensure that the system runs smoothly, how can it
01:43run
01:43smoothly if you remove all the mechanisms that you need? The association held a silent protest today
01:49outside the Ministry of Education headquarters in protest of this and other issues, including the
01:56outstanding back pay. We have not yet even touched on the back pay and we have no definite timelines on
02:01that. So we're asking again, give us a definite date with respect to the back pay. When will the back
02:06become? Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
Comments