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7news stopped in today and spoke with the president of the BNTU - who discussed their upcoming meeting with the Prime Minister to negotiate salary adjustment.

Luke Palacio - President, BNTU
"The convention is held every year, usually the Wednesday and Thursday after the Easter a week and it is the highest authority of the Belize National Teachers Union, where all 10 branches of the union come together at a venue that is usually agreed upon like a year before. At that convention, we get the minutes of the previous convention. We get the reports from the president, and the national treasurer; the branch officers also give their report and the executive secretary. Those are then discussed with members; concerns, issues, questions, all of those matters are addressed. The convention also gets resolution from its members as to what are some of the things they would like the union to undertake in the ensuing year, as it relates to anything affecting the teaching profession, the education system and that sort of thing. We are usually welcomed by the Mayor of the City, and so this morning Mayor Simeon Lopez welcomed us to the City of Belmopan. Our guest speaker was the U.S ambassador to Belize, His Excellency Vinai Thumalapally and they gave some very thought provoking - spoke to some very thought provoking issues that our teacher no doubt will bear in mind for a long time to come."

Monica Bodden
"Can you speak to us about some of these issues?"

Luke Palacio
"Well one of the issue of course I raised has to do; is that the teachers has to do in assist in ensuring that our children, our youngsters in particular, be thought to respect our National Anthem, and our National Symbols. Mayor Lopez specifically spoke to the way the National Anthem is sung. He spoke also to civic pride that our students need to be taught civic pride and love of country in general. The Ambassador spoke basically to education, that it needs to have some sort of technological skills be thorough to our students as well, so that they can develop certain life skills that they may be able to use when they're through with their education. He spoke to the suggestion of moving the compulsory school age to 16 as opposed to 14, and that education is everybody's business and that we should not only blame one party but there should be calibration with all the party concerns; the governments, the managements, the union, the teachers, the parents, so basically those were some of the areas that they spoke to this morning. The salary adjustment is an issue that the BNTU discussed shortly with its membership, as a part of the president report. We've said it in the media and we continue to say it, that we intend to negotiate in good faith as long as the Government comes clean with us. We have indicated in certain sections of the media that we expect that on Friday, April 5, when we meet with the Prime Minister, the counter proposal that the 3 Unions have presented to him, will form a part of the agenda for that meeting. If the Prime Minister refuses to put that on the agenda then our intentions - well at least BNTU mandate from its council of management is that we walk out of the meeting. So, that's where we are at this point."

This year's annual teacher's convention is celebrated under the theme "BNTU, Overcoming Challenges, Embracing Opportunities in Education. The Prime Minister will be meeting with the National Teachers Union on Friday to discuss their salary adjustment.