T&T: Paying for services not rendered

A CHEMISTRY teacher registered to teach at the Chaguanas Senior Comprehensive School has been, for more than three years, signing the daily register at the school but not showing up to teach his classes.

Instead, he has been practising law at the Chaguanas courts.

The Express yesterday contacted the school and was told that the principal was not available for comment. The Ministry of Education's communications officer Hilton Braveboy confirmed that this was indeed the case and stressed that the students were in fact not affected by the teacher's absence, since steps had been taken to ensure that they were taught.

Braveboy said the case has been before the Teachers' Disciplinary Tribunal for "a few months" but could not say when proceedings had commenced.

Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers' Association (TTUTA) president Trevor Oliver revealed that the case had been a thorn in the association's side for some time, saying: "We were briefed by parents, teachers and students at that school a long time ago on the same issue. We had asked the Ministry to take action because it is against TTUTA's code of ethics. We expect teachers to be on their jobs."

He added: "Our main concern was that the children must be taught and since they are being taught, the Ministry will have to determine what actions will now be taken concerning the teacher."

When the Express called the residence of the teacher, a female voice answered. Asked if the teacher was at court, she answered: "Yes, he is."

Well, I wish I'd known it was possible to do this when I taught in T&T! Note the indifference of the Ministry of Education's communications officer to the teacher's violation of his obligations. TTUTA passes the buck on ethical grounds, and the Ministry is cool with the teacher's absence, and cool with paying two people to do the same job or having the one paid pay somebody to do his job (who knows if the substitute is qualified?). How long does it take the Ministry to fire a teacher, especially when TTUTA is signalling they'd have no objections?