And while the Minister has won the battle of fees, the war of the National Education Service Commission will go on for some time. Garbutt says it’s a matter of Catholic Schools having the right to hire and fire those who do or don’t adhere to their standards. Faber says it’s about stopping those Catholic Schools from practicing discrimination. Here again are both sides.
Frank Garbutt,
“The Teaching Services Commission for our school system represents a tectonic shift in the definition of what constitutes the church state system. The long practiced tradition has been that, and that came out of the fact that a lot of these schools were fully private way before they ever became granted aid where you have your land, your buildings, your other inputs and you also employed the teachers who work in your institution. That it is now being proposed that we will have where a single employer will exist for the whole country, I don’t have yet, cause we have to sit down and go through this, all the legal implications of that. What I do know is it sounds like a very complicated entity and it sounds like it requires a lot of deep thought and reflection as to what it would mean. We’re moving from a system of multiple employers to one employer for the entire Belize educational system. That has serious implications in many ways and we do not feel that we were adequately made to sit down and have that dialogue with the Ministry as to what that means or if whether or not we even agreeing with it. For secondary and tertiary there was not a single representation from among those schools’ managing authorities on the committee that worked on these documents.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“These draft rules have come about as a result of a working group of people coming together that includes the Catholic Management. This is what really really has me scrambling for answers. Mr. Pech, Bernaldino Pech, the General Manager of Catholic Schools is on that working group that came up with the draft rules.”
Jules Vasquez,
Maybe he is a dissenting member.
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“No he is not. He understands pretty well, at least from what they have told me.”
Frank Garbutt,
“It should not be shocking to anybody that we are going to find a lot of this to be unacceptable to hear that we will no longer have authority over our employees is not a small feat. I don’t care what organization you are in, what business you are in, to say that you can have these inputs, own your land, own your buildings, but you don’t have control over the people who will work in it. That is a different attitude and a different mentality that some of us maybe need more time. The Roman Catholic Church has 42 pre-schools, 111 primary schools, 12 secondary schools along with the Extension and three junior colleges. It is a major investment of its time, resources, it is its major apostolate in this nation. It will take quite a while for our entire system to sit down to work through what this means, how it will work, if it can work. So for now our position is we need the time, we need more answers.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“What is consultation, is that point where we ask you to give your
views. It is not written in stone yet. So when we get into the argument about the Teaching Services Commission the people who are saying it is being shoved down their throats, they are not being given the opportunity to read it, that opportunity is now. They are saying it is not there, it is now. It is now that you should decide to go and look up what these recommendations for changes should be. It is now that you should say I don’t agree with this or I don’t agree with that.”
Frank Garbutt,
“If you have one employer for the whole country, let’s just take our college alone Jules and you look at the number of problems and issues that come up and working out and seeking resolutions, can one entity house, I don’t know if it is going to be housed in Belmopan or Belize City, wherever, with a group of people handle all these issues for every single school from pre-school to tertiary and all vocational schools, the entire teaching workforce for the country?”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“The Teaching Services Commission is not the Ministry of Education and that is where they are purposely trying to mislead. TSC is a different entity from the Ministry of Education. It is made up of representations from all of us these bodies. So no, we are not trying to destroy the churches role, the church will still have a role to play.”
Jules Vasquez,
Are you able to say authoritatively or convincingly that SJC has not engaged in discriminatory practices against people who it feels are of poor moral background and unfit to teach in an institution that is seeking a Catholic education?
Frank Garbutt,
“I am willing to say that by the standard of any profession, whether you are a doctor or a nurse, any profession you are entering, an accountant, an engineer, any profession has standards, any profession has expectations. I am absolute in my belief that for ourselves, we ensure that at least those standards are there for whoever we employ and that means also that we are in line in what the Education Act and the Education Rules require.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“What we’re trying to stop are those churches that insist that they will only hire wedded mothers, those churches that insist they will not teachers who are clearly very much qualified but have children outside of wedlock, we are trying to stop those people who are saying we will only hire you if you are from our church, we are trying to stop people who are saying we will only hire you if you are from our political party, yes you heard me right. Where were they last night when the consultations were being held at St. Mary’s Hall and very same Education Act and on the very same rules which they don’t agree with. How come they were a no show, doesn’t it send the signal that they want to be mischievous.”
Frank Garbutt,
“Attending a consultation, I think is a democratic right we have. We cannot attend and it does not mean a boycott or a protest or anything. A Belizean chooses the thing they want to go to. It was last week Monday in a meeting that the Deputy Chief Education Officer informed us for the first time which would have been the Wednesday I think about this meeting. That was the first time. This is what we are supposed to have read, analyzed and go to the consultation Wednesday to share our opinion. If you look at this document and read it, you can’t do that in one overnight. The following Monday I had personal commitments which didn’t allow me to be able to go otherwise as per usual I would have been there with my vocal self.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
All those people who are saying they don’t have time to read it, that’s nonsense. You have all the time in the world and if you miss the Belize City consultation, let me tell you the consultations are happening tonight in Dangriga and if you missed the one in Dangriga, there is one happening in Independence at the following day and if you miss that one the schedule continues. We go to San Pedro, we go o PG and if you miss all of that you may put your submissions in writing and send it to the Chief.”
Frank Garbutt,
“We were not invited the way we would want to which is sitting down face to face. I don’t mean showing up just at 7 o’clock at night to go have a dialogue. The partners in education I think can also meet between 8 to 5. If we are partners, I imagine we are supposed to be meeting before the seven o’clock at night to ensure that both sides are on the same footing because that is what is healthy, that is what is respectful, and that is what makes the system works best.”
Sources say that Minister Faber has written to SJC but has received no reply.
