And while teachers may get back their full pay - there's no easy way for students to get back their full education after all the learning loss of the past two years.
Tonight, the Education Ministry says that it has a plan to address those gaps. At the same time, the ministry's technocrats are working with stakeholders - including the teachers - to come up with a full curriculum reform agenda.
The Minister and his team think that now is the time to take an honest look at the education agenda to improve in the areas that have caused the school system to fail students.
Here's how he put it:
Hon. Francis Fonseca - Member, GOB's Negotiating Team
"We're going to have a full briefing on the curriculum. You know, we're still engaged in some consultations but again, I think we're looking at fundamental reform. You know, the curriculum is absolutely overloaded. It's absolutely overloaded. And we intend to reduce what they call learning outcomes - I've talked about this already - and make sure that our students are learning what matters. It's critical. we can't be in a country like Belize - we can't lose sight of the fact that education has to be tied to national development. You know, it has to be tied to economic development, to the national development of our country. So we have to be educating our people to be a part of growing Belize, developing Belize, and equipping them with the skill, the knowledge, information, the values, and the attitudes they need to be effective participants in the development of Belize. So we have to have a much more focused and targeted curriculum. And that's going to be the objective. And Belizeans, I think, will embrace the curriculum when we unveil it in a few weeks' time."
