2 Friday's ago, we told you about the impasse between the Ministry of Education and the Belize National Teachers Union which caused the 2014 National Teachers Rally to be cancelled.
Basically what happened is, the ministry and the union couldn't agree over money - who would pay how much for what. The ministry asked the BNTU would be able to come up with one - third of the money required to hold the massive national event, which would have been more than $30,000 dollars. The BNTU instead said that they didn't have that much, and instead, they were hoping that the Ministry would accept a $10,000 contribution toward the rally. The Ministry couldn't accept that offer, and so the national rally, which was supposed to honour all the teachers around the country, had to be downsized to government funded district events.
Today, we caught up with Education Minister Patrick Faber, and he gave us a reaction to the disagreement:
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"The plan to have it nationally, to celebrate teachers day national of course was started back in 2009 and it was decided this year that we will celebrate nationally again and we formed a committee to do the planning made up of the different stakeholder groups including the Belize National Teachers Union. In 2009 the union's contribution to the national teacher's day plan was I think $24,000. I think it will be reasonable for us to expect that same kind of contribution and of course given the fact that they will hastily point out that things have gotten a bit more expensive over time that you'd expect to spend even a little bit more and so once the budget was decided - the budget I think was $116,000 and this is to move teachers from across the country from even the most remote parts of Corozal and Toledo to Benque Viejo for the celebration. It would have cost us $116,000 and their contribution would have been a third of the expenses. The union had indicated to us that they are not able to do that, that they would merely be able to afford $10,000. I have my views about it really. I think it is sad because this is an appreciation for teachers. I am understanding from what I've been able to gather from people who were present in the discussions that this may have to do with a bit of spiting the ministry to make the ministry look bad. I don't know for certain. But certainly when that kind of initiative breaks down it's not spiting the ministry. This is something that we are doing to honor the teachers of this country and while it is that we do have rockiness in terms of our relationship from time to time I will not relent on my push to try to get teachers to be more effective. I do still salute them. I believe that the teachers have played a major role, we have some very wonderful dedicated teachers."
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