By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterTEACHERS IN the island's public schools have delayed protest action until next week.
All of the approximately 20,000 teachers represented by the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) turned up for work yesterday, despite the failure of the Government to make a new offer in the wake of the JTA ultimatum which expired on Wednesday evening. A few teachers took action, including those at William Knibb, Trelawny, who staged a brief sit-in and those at Manchester High, who demonstrated outside the institution's gates for about an hour. Otherwise, teachers worked normally yesterday.
According to Dr. Adolph Cameron, general secretary of the JTA, instructions on what form next week's protest is to take are being issued to teachers islandwide. But, the JTA is still not disclosing how the teachers plan to show their displeasure at the Government's failure to respond to their wage demands.
"I am saying that the teachers have been told what they are going to do next week. I am not indicating in the media what form that protest will be, only that they are going to take some action," Dr. Cameron insisted.
He added that the JTA has also formally responded to a letter from the Ministry of Finance and Planning, delivered Wednesday, which he said dashed their hopes of getting a better offer.
Minister of Education, Youth and Culture, Maxine Henry-Wilson, says that the Ministry will today begin assessing the situation in the schools, with a view to put in contingency measures should the teachers take protest action.
Minister Henry-Wilson said that there was nothing the Ministry of Education could do, in terms of influencing a change in the wage and fringe benefits offer, as it was a Ministry of Finance decision. But, she stressed that the lines of communication between Government and the JTA remain open.
"Our lines of communication are open. We speak to them and we hear what is happening and so forth but we, at the Ministry, are just going to prepare whatever contingencies we can tomorrow," she said. "We are just trying to get an indication from the various schools as to what is to be expected. The JTA sent out instructions to their various parish offices and so, based on that, we are trying to discern what is planned in each parish so we can know what to expect."
The Ministry of Finance and Planning, reportedly, responded to a few of the 29 points in the teachers' claim on Wednesday. The Ministry has agreed to about three points and have rejected the others, including a request that the salaries of all teachers be raised by 30 per cent in year one and a further 30 per cent in year two of a two-year contract. The Government is offering three per cent in each year for the contract period 2002-2004.
The Ministry also rejected claims that teachers in sixth form, who spend over 50 per cent of their contact hours at that level be paid at tertiary rates; that all teachers of grade two in primary and all-age schools be paid a protective clothing allowance; that teachers' inducement allowance be increased from four to six increments; that lecturers in community colleges be made travelling officers; and that motorcar duty concessions be extended to permanently employed teachers with a minimum of 10 years of service.
The Ministry has also rejected a request for parcels of land to be made available in each parish for housing teachers and that teachers, who are not now receiving a housing allowance, be given an allowance of 10 per cent of the minimum of the trained teacher diploma scale.
Teachers have been threatening to strike since January 30, after rejecting the Government's wage and fringe benefits offer at various parish meetings.
Action has, however, been delayed by a JTA request that they do not take action without directives from the Association. But on Wednesday night the JTA warned that it could no longer guarantee normality in the island's schools.
