Teachers must grade SBAs

Minister of Education Anthony Garcia
Minister of Education Anthony Garcia

The order by the TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) that secondary school teachers stop grading school-based assignments (SBAs) unless they were paid has been shot down by the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO).

The CPO said marking SBAs formed part of the duties of secondary school teachers in dealing with the terms and conditions of service of teachers.
The association made the call in May when it claimed teachers were overburdened by the extra work.

After a meeting with TTUTA, the National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA), the Association of Public Secondary Schools Principals and the Association of Assisted Secondary School Principals, Education Minister Anthony Garcia took the matter to the CPO, who said failing to perform this duty could result in disciplinary action according to the code of conduct of the Education Service Regulations 39:01. The matter was also taken to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi after the minister met with with his legal team. The AG advised the ministry to follow the decision of the CPO.

Speaking during a news conference yesterday at the ministry on St Vincent Street, Port of Spain, Garcia also said the ministry had reached an agreement with TTUTA over the cost of training teachers in visual and performing arts, a subject area introduced years ago.

He said the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, had been helping the ministry provide training for secondary school teachers in various areas, as they were expected to update themselves professionally. Garcia said since 2014 teachers in this subject area have not had the opportunity to access this training because of the cost when compared to other subject areas.
“They felt they were being denied because any additional professional qualification would help them in determining promotion.”

Garcia said the ministry met with senior tutors at TTUTA to come to a solution. Chief education officer Harrilal Seecharan said the Diploma of Education programme was available at UWI, where a number of teachers were sent to do the programme in different subject areas.

“UWI was organised to run the other areas, but there were different costs. That was part of the reason the programme was not being offered. We were able to negotiate with TTUTA the cost of the performing arts in line with other areas. We were able to resolve it so that the 40 applicants for 2018 would be able to pursue it alongside other subject areas,” he said.

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