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BUT admits to high teacher absenteeism due to ‘frustration’ - Barbados Today

Teachers have been staying off the job in recent weeks at many schools across the island, the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) confirmed on Tuesday, blaming the educators’ growing frustration with the school system.The revelation came following the latest work stoppage among public school teachers, when most of the 30-plus staff at the St George Primary School failed to report for duty on Tuesday, forcing the school to close and throwing the resumption of classes on Wednesday into doubt.And BUT President Rudy Lovell declared the situation would soon reach a breaking point unless their employer, the Ministry of Education, moved to solve the problems.“St George Primary School was closed [Tuesday] after a number of teachers reported ill today with only four teachers of the staff’s complement turning up for work. There have been a lot of issues in the past that were brought to the attention of the Ministry of Education that were not addressed. I am not sure if the concerns would have led to teachers feeling ill, mentally and otherwise,” he said.“This adds to the list of teachers who are frustrated in this system. The ministry has taken the position that they are going to hire a stakeholder relations officer and a communications specialist while ignoring many of the issues brought to their attention by the union, principals and teachers in the system. This is frustrating members of the teaching profession. The frustrations are growing to the point where people are getting ill and I suspect that more people will get ill given what is transpiring.”

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