A High Court judge has taken the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) to task for a seven-year delay in interviewing secondary-school teachers after he ordered the commission to interview one to determine his suitability for teaching physics and integrated science in 90 days.
Justice Frank Seepersad made the order on August 15. In a ruling, Seepersad held Prakash Sugremsingh’s right to the protection of the law had been violated and breached by the TSC’s delays in interviewing him for a higher teaching position.
He also ordered $30,000 in vindicatory damages.
Seepersad now has to determine if Sugremsingh is entitled to any salary arrears.
In his lawsuit, Sugremsingh said he was appointed assistant teacher III in 2000 and placed at Shiva Boys’ Hindu College. His salary grade was $4,131-$4,971.
He then applied to the Corinth Teachers College for his teacher’s diploma. In 2010, he graduated from the University of Trinidad and Tobago with a bachelor of education, secondary, with a specialisation in integrated science. Although Sugremsingh expected an appointment or promotion to graduate teacher III, the judge said the mere fact an applicant has the relevant qualifications did not automatically guarantee success at promotion, but should be considered.
Sugremsingh asserted he had not been promoted for 12 years, although his transcripts were sent to the Education Ministry. He said he was then told he needed to complete a bridging programme, which he did. In 2017, he received an assessment letter from the ministry confirming he was qualified for promotion, but had to be interviewed by the TSC.
To date, he has not been interviewed and is still being paid as an assistant teacher.
In 2023, the TSC indicated he was appointed Teacher 1 Secondary (Grade III) in 2010. However, his payslips never reflected the increase in his pay grade.
In evidence before the court, the TSC said that based on the volume of assessments/applications, interviews in the subject area of physics are currently being done for people assessed in March 2017.
However, Seepersad said, “This evidence instils a significant degree of disquiet in the court’s mind and suggests that the first defendant’s current modus operandi and organisational structure is in dire need of reform.
“If, as the evidence suggests, there exists at least a seven-year delay between the time one becomes qualified to be interviewed and when the interview is actually conducted, then such a scenario is completely unacceptable as it does not accord with good administration."
He said there should be a "clarion call" for constitutional reform as it appeared the TSC was no longer able to manage hiring, promoting and disciplining teachers effectively and efficiently. In addition, the number of teachers needed had dramatically increased since independence, but the process had "remained frozen in time as the republic appears to be wedded to inherited colonial processes," he warned.
The TSC played a critical role in the country, he said, and vacancies in the school system s
