Two weeks into the start of the new school year, things appear to be running smoothly. Typically, at the beginning of every school year, numerous complaints from teachers, parents, and students are vented in the media. These often include incomplete remedial work to school infrastructure, inadequate teachers for core subjects at secondary school in particular, and other staffing issues.
But as they say, so far, so good.
Over the years, schools have been plagued by inadequate security during the day and at night, which has, in many cases, led to infractions between teachers, students, and assailants, as well as several overnight robberies. The Ministry of Education has sought to beef up school security to address these problems, and it is our hope that our schools become as safe a space as possible for teachers, students, and ancillary staff.
While the overall school population has been dwindling due to a drop in the birth rate, the Ministry of Education remains concerned about school attendance.
To this end, it has been announced that four additional attendance officers will be added to the lone officer who previously presided. The ministry has described the issue of absenteeism as “chronic” among Saint Lucian students across the island, and the intention is to curb the issue. Additionally, attendance officers are expected to liaise between communities and schools, giving direction for psychosocial support where necessary.
This initiative can only augur well for giving perspective to the reasons for truancy, which can then be addressed more holistically.
The Ministry of Education has also embarked on several other significant initiatives, including, for the first time, the provision of sanitary napkins in schools across the island, a direct response to period poverty.
It was also announced recently that the government will be paying for four CXC subjects for students, to include mathematics, English, one science subject, and a foreign language.
The teacher material allowance continues, with $1,400 allocated to each teacher at the start of the school year to assist with teaching aids. Temporary teachers, who would not have been paid in August in the past, received their full salary for the first time in August 2025.
The government has continued to assist private early childhood centres with grants – $3,000 this year and a children’s tuition subsidy of $100 per child.
While all of this is great and commendable news, bringing smiles to the faces of many, we believe that the gesture of benevolence should be extended to those in whose care the early learners are left.
For starters, they are not seen as teachers and do not qualify to be members of the teachers’ union and therefore remain voiceless. They are referred to as “daycare attendants” and “caregivers,” which seem like misnomers. However, they play the roles of teachers, mothers, doctors, nurses, psychologists and much more – caring for toddlers from six weeks to four years. Their take-home pay at the government-run Early Childhood Centres averages $1,200, with zero pay during August.
If we truly believe that their role is critical to the development of our children and their support builds the essential foundation for a child’s future learning, as is often said, this belief should be reflected in how they are compensated.
After all, they too make tremendous sacrifices, providing toys and aids of their own, often giving up their time to stay back with children whose parents are late in picking them up.
It is our hope that at the start of the next school year, if not before, they will also have more reasons to smile, with their August salaries paid in addition to some financial support for the aids and toys they provide.
It is the least we can do to show that they, too, matter!
So far so good but I want to correct one thing. This is not the first time that temporary teachers have received their August salary. I have two siblings who were temporary teachers in the 80’s and 90’s who were paid every August. I even joked with them and told them that they were being paid to be on holidays. I think that August salary for temporary teachers ended when all government employees were taken off the government pension scheme and sent to NIS now NIC.