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MOE blames Treasury for teachers? $$$ delays!

GeneralMOE blames Treasury for teachers? $$$ delays!

The late payment of salary and tuition grants was reportedly only a notable concern for secondary institutions, and not for primary schools.


The Belize Association of Principals for Secondary Schools (BAPSS) met on Tuesday, December 7, to discuss collective concerns about the GOB?s overdue salary and tuition subventions to some high schools for October and November.


One Belize City high school educator told the newspaper that a letter was drafted in the BAPSS meeting. The newspaper has obtained a copy of the draft letter, which is addressed to parents/guardians, informing them that ?for the months of October and November, several schools did not receive either the tuition grant or salary grant (or in some cases both) from the Ministry of Education.?


The letter further states that because the schools have not received those payments, they have been placed in ?extreme difficulty in meeting the salaries of the teachers.?


The letter also urges parents to do their part in paying whatever educational costs they must bear for their children.


While the letter was drafted and was intended for high schools to distribute, one high school educator told the newspaper that their school did not follow through, because the other schools had not distributed the letter.


This educator told us that the reason why some schools had not distributed the letter was because they had gotten a guarantee from GOB or the Ministry of Education (MOE) that salary and tuition subventions for December would be paid in full by December 15 ? the due date. The newspaper could not determine whether this guarantee came directly from the MOE or from some other GOB office.


An educator from a Southside Belize City high school told us that they (the Southside high school) had not received their salary and tuition payments for both October and November, and had to rely on other resources to pay their teachers? salaries. That teacher said that because students were paying for the Caribbean Examination Council exams, the school dipped into the monies it had collected for the exams and had to find other resources to replace that money that they had used.


The newspaper also learned that at least one high school managed to meet their teachers? salaries by running an overdraft with a commercial bank.


Amandala spoke to the Public Relations Officer in the MOE, Rafael Sosa, who said that as of November 30, MOE had processed all payments that were due to high schools nationwide, with the exception of one high school, whose payment was processed by December 3.


Sosa added, however, that while the MOE has cleared all payments to high schools, there are still three high schools that have not received all the payments due them. He said that the delay was with the Treasury Department, and not the MOE.


At present, there are about 45 secondary schools in Belize that the GOB subsidizes with tuition and salary grants.


Secondary schools run by the Government receive a 100 percent salary grant from GOB, while GOB pays 70% of the salaries for the other schools. GOB pays the tuition for all government aided and government run high schools, so that at the end of each month the MOE receives a tuition bill from each secondary school, said Sosa. Therefore, GOB not only shoulders the majority of the salaries paid to high school teachers, which averages about $1.2 million each month, but it also shoulders the tuition for each student attending a public high school. Sosa noted that on average, the MOE spends about $435,000 in tuition payments to high schools each month.


He further explained that the reason why some high schools had not received payment for either salary grants or tuition, is because of the process that GOB uses to issue payments to the schools. He explained that although the MOE has its own budget, it must request the Ministry of Finance to de-reserve the necessary funds in order for MOE to meet its financial obligations to schools nationwide. (This means that the Ministry of Finance has to give the ?O.K.? for the MOE to draw from monies earmarked in its budget.)


Another Belize City high school educator told the newspaper that GOB has guaranteed that it would live up to its December financial obligations for secondary schools, and in a timely manner.


Teachers are usually paid only once a month (either in the first week or in the last week of the month), but in December they are usually paid at the middle of the month – thus getting a salary advance for their Christmas vacation.


The official comment from the Minister of Education, Hon. Francis Fonseca, is that the MOE has processed all tuition and salary payments due up to the end of November for high schools nationwide.


Sosa also told the newspaper that the MOE does not foresee that salary and/or tuition payments to high schools will be delayed for this month, meaning that MOE would meet its December 15 due date.


Amandala spoke with about 12 high school educators from various institutions throughout the country. The general sentiment from the educators we spoke to is that of concern. According to these teachers, there are rumors in the education mill that have led them to become concerned whether they would receive their salaries on the expected date.


Most teachers that spoke to the newspaper said that they had learned of the situation, where their respective schools were not getting the GOB subsidies on time, through staff meetings held at their schools.


The MOE?s assertion that the high school subventions were not paid out in a timely manner because of a delay on the part of the Treasury Department came very late this evening, and the newspaper?s efforts to reach the Accountant General, Carmen Barrow, for an official comment were not met with success.

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