The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Educators, Counsellors and Allied Workers Union has broken with the Bahamas Union of Teachers over plans to recruit up to 300 Ghanaian teachers, embracing the initiative as a necessary response to crippling staff shortages while warning against claims that Bahamian educators are being pushed aside.

BECAWU president Keysha LaRoda called the proposed deployment a “positive step” towards filling critical vacancies in specialist subjects and preventing shortages from further straining classrooms.

Her intervention exposed a divide within the labour movement after Bahamas Union of Teachers president Belinda Wilson blasted the initiative as “egregious and highly offensive” and accused the Davis administration of moving faster to recruit foreign teachers than to settle the pay and employment concerns of Bahamians already connected to the profession.

Ms LaRoda, however, warned stakeholders against “creating the narrative that Bahamian teachers are not being given priority”.

She said overseas recruitment has long been used to plug gaps that cannot immediately be filled locally and argued that leaving classrooms without qualified teachers inflicts greater damage on the education system.

Staff shortages force schools to increase substitutions, swell class sizes and pile additional pressure on teachers already working in the system, she said.

“BECAWU's position is clear: once the Government addresses and executes the outstanding human resource matters affecting Bahamian teachers, including confirmations, reclassifications, and other employment-related concerns, we have no issue with the recruitment of qualified teachers from other countries to fill genuine shortages within the education system,” Ms LaRoda said in a statement.

Ms LaRoda said BECAWU is focused on solving problems and driving meaningful progress rather than inflaming conflict.

“BECAWU has signed an industrial agreement that provides benefits and protections for educators throughout the system,” the union said. “We remain committed to partnering with the Government and all stakeholders to resolve outstanding issues and strengthen the education system for the benefit of educators, students, and the nation.”

The dispute erupted after Ghanaian Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced that The Bahamas was ready to receive 300 Ghanaian teachers this year following talks with Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis during the country’s 53rd Independence celebrations.

Mr Ablakwa described the deployment as the first phase of expanded educational cooperation between the countries. He said Bahamian officials moved to widen an existing labour partnership after being impressed by the performance of Ghanaian nurses already working in The Bahamas.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Chester Cooper described the proposal as a generous offer from Ghana to help the ministry confront a shortage of roughly 300 teachers.

He said the shortfall has been fuelled by retirements, expiring contracts and the expansion of specialist subjects, including special education, technology, financial literacy, digital literacy and entrepreneurship studies.

Mr Cooper insisted that qualified Bahamians would receive first priority and that overseas recruitment would be used only for vacancies that could not immediately be filled locally.

The ministry has assembled a multi-agency task force to attract recent graduates, retired teachers and former educators willing to return to classrooms. The group includes the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Public Service, the Department of Labour, the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the National Accreditation and Equivalency Council of The Bahamas.

Officials have also explored recruitment partnerships with Kenya, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and other countries.

Mr Cooper said foreign recruits would undergo the ministry’s standard procedures, including rigorous checks of their qualifications and character, cultural-sensitivity training, orientation and a six-month immersion programme.

The assurances have not quieted Mrs Wilson, who questioned how officials could negotiate the proposed deployment “in minutes” while the BUT had spent ten months at the bargaining table without securing salary increases for more than 2,000 Bahamian teachers.

She said hundreds of teachers were still awaiting money owed to them, including rent allowances, while some University of The Bahamas graduates from 2025 had yet to be hired by the ministry.

Meanwhile, Free National Movement deputy leader Shanendon Cartwright demanded that the government reveal the full terms of the proposed arrangement.

He called on officials to disclose the salaries that would be paid to the Ghanaian teachers, any travel and housing costs the public would bear and the process used to determine whether the recruits satisfy the qualifications required to teach in Bahamian classrooms.

“Bahamians have a right to know how decisions affecting our classrooms and our children are made,” Mr Cartwright said. “Vague statements and social media posts are not enough.”

The government has not yet publicly disclosed when the teachers are expected to arrive, where they would be assigned, the precise subjects they would teach or the total cost of recruiting and accommodating them.