By LETRE SWEETING
lsweeting@tribunemedia.net
ACTING Education Director Dominique Russell said that 19 teachers assigned to the Family Islands who were waiting for financial support and payment received what they were owed yesterday.
“Well today is payday and I have not gotten any calls yet. So I’m assuming that all of those persons would have been paid, we would have sent all that information to our accounts area.
“And they would have advised us that those persons would have been paid. And so today is the day. And so hopefully, we will not get anyone calling us back. But if we do, we will mitigate it,” Mrs Russell said yesterday.
During a press conference on December 6, Bahamas Union of Teachers president Belinda Wilson said some teachers assigned to the Family Islands were without housing and financial support for which the Ministry of Education was responsible.
“Why would you want to go to the Family Islands when, as I speak with you today, there are teachers who have been in the Family Islands since August and they have not received $1 rent,” Mrs Wilson said at the time.
“When you’re going to the Family Island, and the union has already negotiated for you to get a geographical posting allowance, where you should purchase your ticket, where you’ll be able to put your personal items on the mail boat, and you’re unable to gather - you’re waiting two or three months to receive geographical posting allowance,” Mrs Wilson said.
“When you get to the Family Island, and you have to sleep on another teacher’s floor because they did not provide temporary housing for you. Tell me if anyone is going to leave their home after they’ve spent four years educating themselves to go to a Family Island to be treated as a second-class citizen,” she said.
In addition, Mrs Wilson also mentioned that the Department of Education was “really lacking” in the human resources area.
“There has to be improvement in (the Ministry of) Education in the human resource department to ensure that once documentation has been provided to you or submitted to you, that the process is done in a more timely manner,” Mrs Wilson said earlier this month.
In response to this, Mrs Russell said yesterday that once her department gets their appointment letters, new staff will be hired in the areas of accounts and human resources (HR).
“Well, based on my two months here, I can say to you that we have a staff shortage in HR and in accounts. I know that we would have hired two persons in accounts already. I think we brought in one or two persons in HR just recently, we have to increase our resources so that we’re able to meet the needs. And, of course, we’ve been behind in terms of our staffing,” she said.
“We have sought to address those needs, but we still need more persons.”
She said education officials are also working to ensure schools have all the support staff they need.
“We’ve actually gone to the (Public Service) Commission, we’ve interviewed potential candidates for leadership, and we are ensuring that we have them put in place for January. We’re also looking at where there may be some more staff shortages. We still have some of our applications at the Ministry of Public Service. And you know, staffing, again, is an issue. And so once we get those appointment letters, we’re putting those teachers in place,” Mrs Russell said.
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