Francis Fonseca is back at the Ministry of Education and it seems he's already normalizing relations with the Teachers' union after those had veered a little off track.
Yesterday he met with the BNTU to reaffirm their commitment to strengthening the education system. In a press release, the two parties agreed to advance work on Heads of Department allowances and Continuous Professional Development requirements for teacher licensing. They also agreed to streamline the Teacher Transfer Grant approval process, launch a digital platform for teacher concerns, ensure access to all benefits and allowances for eligible teachers and more.
Today we asked Fonseca how that meeting went.
Francis Fonseca, Minister Of FAFT, ECST
"I met with the Belize National Teachers Union yesterday. Yeah. Very, very good meeting, very productive meeting, very positive meeting. We discussed a number of issues and, you know, we agreed on certain things. So, very productive, very productive meeting. And the, you know, I've always made the point that we are partners in education. So, you know, the success of education depends on us working together in a productive spirit. And so I'm very happy that we reaffirmed that commitment yesterday in our meeting, the president and her team met with myself and our team at the Ministry of Education. And on both sides. We reaffirmed our commitment to working together in good faith, respectful dialog, to ensure that we are addressing all of the serious challenges we face in the education system."
