Philipsburg:--- President of the Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU) who is also the vice president of the Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Unions (WICLU) told reporters on Tuesday that the WITU board met last week Thursday where they discussed the current predicament teachers are faced with regarding violence against teachers.
Elshot said that the WITU prepared a draft document with a number of questions that will be distributed to all schools as they conduct a survey on the amount and types of violence students are using against teachers. Elshot said that the draft document consists of five pages and it does not only focus on violence but through this survey the union would gather more information on other issues affecting teachers. Elshot said that the union plans to hold a number of events, one of which will be a peaceful march.
The WITU President said the union is currently seeking the permit to conduct this march. She said that the WITU will invite teachers from all schools to participate in the march because violence in school is not restricted to one particular school and while a group of teachers broke the silence, there are a number of teachers that are suffering silently. Elshot said the date for the march is not yet set, while they are busy trying to get t-shirts, posters, and stickers for the event. The theme for the march will be "No More Words, Time For Action, Stop the Violence Against Teachers." Elshot said that the board of the WITU has decided to conduct the survey first and when that is completed then they will request a meeting with the Minister of Education. Elshot further explained that after the union addressed the matter in last week's press conference they noticed that the Minister of Education announced the following day that she is busy shaping a discipline policy and care unit to counter the violence in schools. However, Elshot said while the intentions of the Minister is a good one no policy can be put in place without the input of the stakeholders, therefore she hopes the Minister of Education will send them a draft copy of the policy so that they can peruse it prior to it going into effect. As for care units, Elshot said that in all schools there are care units but it is not working effectively. She said if the Minister establishes a care unit that would deal specifically with violence, teachers would definitely appreciate that, especially the younger teachers that are now joining the profession.
On another note, Elshot said the FBE Education legislation booklet that is now used by the schools will have to be updated with regards to certain policies. The WITU President said now that St. Maarten would have SBO schools then the union would have to submit a request to the Minister of Education to have official salary scales for teachers of SBO schools. "So far there is one conflict on this specific issue because there is no salary scales for teachers that are teaching at that school, these teachers are being underpaid because of the scales that are used by Government."
