The Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT) agrees that teachers should be compensated for the marking of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) - School Based Assessments (SBAs).
President of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) Mary Redman, addressing the joint BSTU/ Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) meeting held at Solidarity House told members that it is also CUT’s position that teachers should be paid.
“They recognise, the Caribbean Union of Teachers recognises that it’s not our work – it’s CXC’s exam,” she stated.
Despite receiving correspondence from the Ministry of Education last year indicating that the Solicitor General determined that the SBAs form part of the teachers’ duties, the BSTU has not changed its stance not to correct the scripts unless they are compensated.
“We must be paid for CXC’s SBA work. We have to be paid for that. The burden of the volume of work forms part of an external exam – it’s not our work, it’s CXC work – the final product is CXC’s document. It is the third part of a three-part exam, that CXC pays other people to correct the other two parts of,” said Redman, who made BSTU’s position very clear to CXC during a recently held CUT meeting.
“And the fact that the Ministry of Education has been hiring out our services to a third party, without any compensation - for most persons is indisputable. The fact that some persons are paid to perform these functions, while others performing similar functions are not, is discriminatory and goes against the concept of equal pay for work”.
“The fact that there is no legislation or regulation stating that we must correct for free, the examinations of any external examination bodies, means that we must be compensated and we challenge the Solicitor General to provide the law, regulation, to provide the documentation to support what comes across as a personal opinion that it forms part of our work. Where is the supporting documentation?” she queried.
Redman went on to point out that Education Minister, the Hon. Ronald Jones while addressing Ellerslie School speech day in December even acknowledged the burdensome nature of the SBA work.
“In the first instance, he was reported as having said that teachers just need to appeal to the Ministry of Education for assistance to mark the SBAs. So, I think that every teacher will have to make that appeal and leave the SBAs for the assistant to mark,” she told members.
“In second instance, it was noted that he was opened to the idea of obtaining additional help for teachers with higher numbers of SBAs to mark. He is willing to pay people to come and help you mark SBAs, extra persons, but you (the teachers) who have spent all that time from first draft to the final fifth draft - you are to be ignored, belittled by the action of bringing in somebody who they will pay to correct the SBAs”.
The BSTU President further disclosed that the CUT asked its afflicts in the region to outline and submit by the end of January exactly what actions they will take.
“By mid-February we are to have a meeting. CUT has been mandated to get another meeting with CXC to pursue the matter further and based on the information it would have had back from the affiliates,” Redman said. (TL)
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