Gadsby-Dolly: No disruption to schools in new term

EDUCATION Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly is assuring there will be no chaos come the new school term in September, as the process for filling teacher vacancies is ongoing, and should be completed well in time for the new term.

She gave this assurance on Tuesday when questioned on the issue by reporters after the Write Away Bocas Lit Fest/COSTATT project signing ceremony at her ministry on St Vincent Street, Port of Spain.

Last week, both the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) and the Trinidad Muslim League (TML) warned that the normal average intake of new students at denominational-run primary schools will be affected in the new term if these vacancies – outstanding since last September – are not filled.

This is because there is a standard ratio of students per teacher in primary schools, and with vacancies not filled, new students will have to be turned away, since raising the ratio will contravene rules agreed too by the Education Ministry and TTUTA.

CEO of the Catholic Education Board of Management Sharon Mungroo said on Tuesday there are 65 teacher vacancies among the country's 118 primary schools.

How many of these vacancies are in denominational-run schools, as opposed to government schools, remains uncertain.

To determine how many teachers are needed to properly manage schools, she said, is the subject of an ongoing survey which is expected to be completed by next week.

Maha Sabha secretary general Vijay Maharaj said he has already completed this survey and it borders around 11 vacancies among all the schools. There are over 40 primary schools, five secondary schools and 13 early childhood centres under the SDMS.

He said with the numbers constantly dropping, his schools have to take less applicants and he is worried about those who have to be turned away. Last year, Maharaj conducted 21 interviews before the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) asked all denominational applicants to apply online. He said all of these applicants will now have to redo the process come June.

Maharaj added that the Tunapuna Hindu Primary School had to take 100 applicants out of 147, and asked, "Where are the 47 going to go?"

He added, "I don't believe they (TSC, Education Ministry) can do it (fill teaching positions), but let them meet and we will see what happens in September."

Questioned about the vacancies on Tuesday, Gadsby-Dolly said, “The ministry has delegated functions from the TSC to assist with the equipment, so we are engaged in that process.

"There is a meeting between the ministry and the TSC. The vacancies would have would have been advertised in January and so short-listing is taking place.”

She said there is a meeting set for this week to finalise the details.

“The boards did get the list of applicants and they have made recommendations, so we’re now at the point where interviews are going to start and that is led by the ministry in a delegated function from the TSC,” Gadsby-Dolly added.

On Monday, the TSC released a statement assuring there will be no disruption to the operations of denominational schools for the upcoming academic year.

The TSC said interviews with short-listed applicants will take place in June. But Mungroo said she remains concerned over the process.

“We have been trying to fill those vacancies since September. To fill the vacancies there is a process which involves the ministry interviewing people recommended by the various (denominational) boards, sending information to the boards and the boards doing the same, before that information goes to TSC.

"For all of this to happen in two months (before the start of the new term) is a little...well, I am hopeful this can actually happen. But it seems to me to be quite challenging and ambitious,” Mungroo said.

She added that the boards are very anxious to collaborate with the ministry and the TSC to solve these challenges. “But we would appreciate very much if information is shared with us.”

She said the board’s main concern is being able to preserve the denominational character of schools as this is among the main reasons parents want to send their children to these schools in the first place.

In its Tuesday release, the TSC said that so far, it has received over 2,000 online applications and once approved, the short-listed applicants will be sent to the denominational boards.

Calls on Tuesday to TTUTA president Martin Lum Kin went unanswered.