Williams welcomes 1,155 new teachers to the education sector

MINISTER OF Education and Youth Fayval Williams has welcomed 1,155 new teachers who have joined the education sector. She also expressed gratitude to the thousands of teachers, administrators and principals who continue to give their best in the development of the nation’s children, and noted that the Ministry of Education and Youth does not take such commitment for granted.

Additionally, Williams noted that with the sudden resignation of scores of teachers and the subsequent employment of new teachers at very short notice, the Ministry of Education and Youth has had to implement new mechanisms to ensure that new teachers are paid in the month of September.

Under normal circumstances, for a teacher to be paid in a particular month, the employment documents must be submitted by the last working day of the previous month.

“For example, to be paid in September, all relevant employment documents must be submitted to the ministry by the last working day in the month of August. However, given that many of the new teachers were employed this month, the ministry extended the deadline for submission to September 12 and deployed the accounting staff to work overtime and on weekends to process the submissions. The ministry received a total of 782 new teachers’ files on or before the September 12 deadline. Of this total, 624 new teachers’ files were processed, and 158 new teachers’ files were deemed incomplete because they did not meet the required standard to enable payment,” Williams explained.

She also highlighted that 373 new teachers’ files were submitted after the extended deadline of September 12.

“Given the importance of salary payment to our teachers, the ministry will do an out-of-cycle payroll during the last week of September to ensure that the 373 new teachers’ files that were received late (after September 12), and the 158 new teachers with incomplete files and any other submissions that are sent to the ministry by September 25 are processed, once all required payment documents are submitted,” Williams added.

To ensure that these efforts are understood by school administrators the following were actioned:

- A schools’ bulletin was sent out to schools early in September to provide guidance;

- The ministry also directed regional directors, education officers and its human resource officers to support principals in ensuring that new teachers’ files are actioned;

- Two virtual meetings were also held on Monday, September 18, one for principals of infant and primary schools and one for principals of secondary schools, to update them on the concerted effort to ensure all teachers are paid this month.

As the processing of teachers’ payroll includes the accountant general’s office, the accountant general confirmed that the payroll process has already begun, with $2 billion already released into the accounts of bursar-paid schools, which are those high schools that pay teachers directly.

The minister said there is an “all-hands-on-deck effort” to ensure salary payments for all teachers, including new ones, for this month, despite the short period that schools had to recruit and hire new teachers.

Williams expressed her gratitude to all who have worked on this process.