THE Opposition New National Party’s Shadow Minister for Education, Delma Thomas, has expressed empathy with the teachers of the nation who have to begin a new school year Monday without their salaries for August.
Grenada’s teachers are among public servants who have not been paid because of government’s fiscal budgetary crisis.
The Ministry of Finance has promised to update public workers early this week about the status of their payment.
“As we speak there is no clear indication nor clear commitment by Finance Minister Nazim Burke as to when teachers and other workers will get paid,” Thomas noted.
“Our nation’s teachers who have had to work under very trying circumstances with the lack of resources to help them carry out their duties, now have the additional burden of their worsening personal financial situation,” Thomas said.
The non-payment of salaries, she noted, has also affected parents in general who were depending on the money to help prepare their children for the new school term.
“This financial crisis has hit home hard not just to teachers, but to thousands of students whose parents are today in no position to provide them with all the necessities for the new school term,” Thomas noted.
“As we speak the entire education system is in crisis,” she added.
Thomas noted: “This crisis will put a damper on the start of the school year as both teachers and students are being directly affected. Many parents have said they cannot send their children out to school on the first day of the year.”
Thomas said the current situation speaks to the mismanagement of the economy by the Tillman Thomas administration, and the inability under the stewardship of Nazim Burke to introduce policies that will stir economic growth.
“Today the education sector reflects the wider sector of our nation — brought to its knees by bad administration,” she said.
“We call on the nation’s teachers to be strong and to be steadfast even in the face of unbearable odds,” Thomas said.