On Friday over two hundred teachers showed up to protest in Belmopan - and countrywide dozens other stayed home as schools were closed in protest. But the Education Ministry declared that they were not authorized to take that time off - and now 7NEWS has received a memorandum dated yesterday which says that those teachers who did not show up to school on Friday will get a pay cut.
The memo is from Chief Education Officer Maud Hyde and it has been sent to school managers, and principals. It says that those teachers and principals who absented themselves without authorization on Friday will have their salaries cut. Because pay sheets for March have already been made, according to the memo, the deductions will be effective April 27, 2007. Hyde has also asked that managers send her a list of who all was absent along with the amount of the deduction.
So what will teachers do? Today Teachers Union General Secretary George Frazer said that the Ministry is playing with fire, as this will only serve to provoke teachers. He warned, "the Ministry will get the response it is asking for."
Frazer estimates that between Belize and Belmopan cities, 250 to 300 teachers were out of work - not absent, he stresses, but participating in what he calls a legitimate and just protest.
