| Opposition Leader Warns: Teachers Demands Can't Be Dismissed |
| Mon, May 12, 2025 |
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On Friday you saw thousands of teachers take to the streets of the capital to demand a salary increase, tax reform, and their increments. The demand for an 8.5% increase was triggered after the CEOs and the CabSec received raises of 15 and 18.5% right at the start of the new. term. The Leader of the Opposition said that their request cannot just be ignored.
Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition
"Under a UDP administration there was a salary increase for teachers. I think it was 30% over a period of time and I think that the concerns of the teachers is not limited to an increase but to ensure that what is due them now is being paid and paid in a timely manner. I think there can be a graduated approach to how increases are given and certainly there cannot be increases for CEOs and for the CabSec without considering how that impacts the overall pay scale of the public service."
Courtney Menzies:
"What do you make of the prime minister's argument that increasing the CEOs' salaries was only $300,000 added to the budget whereas the teachers would be $64 million?"
Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition
"Certainly that has to be a consideration but why do the CEOs need an increase? What is the justification for giving the CEOs an increase? Even the CEO of Education could not speak to the reason she got an increase. As far as she was concerned, they offered it to her and she took it. The public officers and the teachers are the movers and shakers of our economy, the movers and shakers in our country, they protect and provide public services for the people of Belize and their concerns must be taken into account."
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