Earlier we showed you the teachers who protested on Independence Hill during today's budget debate. And for every teacher that was in front of the National Assembly Steps, there was a classroom with no teacher. We today found out how the protest all the way in Belmopan affected classrooms in the city.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Today the gates at most schools - like the one here at holy redeemer primary school - were closed. And instead of the schoolyard - we found primary school students on the streets or on playgrounds. We met this mother who brought her kids from mile 8 to attend school but there were no classes.
Mother,
"When I reached there the school was closed, no teacher was there but they still kept them there for half day because the principal was there and she taught them this morning."
At the high school it was a bit different. It seemed business as usual at most high schools such as St. Michael's College. But at Gwen Lizarraga High School it wasn't business as usual. Principal Lorna McKay explained.
Lorna McKay, Principal - Gwen Liz
"We have twenty one teachers present and we two hundred and eighty one students in school. Out of a population for students of 582, we have 281 students at school. What I have done is to call an emergency meeting with my teachers. We have decided that we will still continue classes because we are here to teach and we regrouped the students according to forms. Teachers are in their classes teaching."
The Ministry of Education and school managements made it clear that those teachers who missed school did so at their own professional peril. In the past, the Ministry has deducted from the salaries of striking teachers but only after many says of absence. We wait and see what will be done in this case.
