No midterm for schoolers
Published:Wednesday | May 12, 2010 | 12:00 AM
There will be no midterm break for students at public schools whose teachers took strike action.
A release from the Ministry of Education yesterday said it plans to compensate for the two school days lost - Monday, May 3 and Tuesday, May 4 - by limiting next week's mid-term break to Labour Day.
This means schools will only be closed on Labour Day during the midterm.
The ministry also indicated it had taken a decision not to dock the salaries of teachers who had not turned up for work on the two days of the strike.
More than 500,000 students at government schools were affected last week Monday and Tuesday when public-sector teachers took protest action in an attempt to force the Government to pay them outstanding salaries.
Call for action
On Friday, May 8, the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) called on members to take further strike action after its central executive rejected Government's latest offer of $1 billion this year and the remaining $7 billion over the next three fiscal years.
The strike action was averted following a meeting last Saturday, when the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) ordered the teachers to immediately withdraw their threatened industrial action, as well as restore and maintain normality.
The JTA was absent from the meeting that was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.
The IDT has invited the disputing parties to attend a meeting at 10 a.m. today at the Ministry of Labour for further discussions on the matter.