Holness to meet teachers

The Education Minister Andrew Holness said he would be meeting with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) next week to discuss their concerns about salary negotiation.



The JTA issued a warning yesterday that the re-opening of schools could be affected in September because of the government’s delay in completing the process necessary to reach a new salary package.



Mr. Holness said this would be one of the issues up for discussion when he meets with the teachers during their annual conference in St. Ann next week.



There has been significant unrest among teachers since the government indicated that it would not be presenting a full offer on salaries and benefits to the JTA.



The JTA said the reason put forward by the government is that the study to realign the salaries of public school teachers to those in the private sector has still not been completed.



The realignment exercise should have taken effect on April 1 2007.