Bursar-paid school system to be phased out
ST JAMES, Jamaica – Secondary schools which operate as bursar-paid institutions are to be phased out, education minister Fayval Williams revealed earlier today.
“Just so you know, eventually, there will be no longer bursar-paid schools. All our teachers are going to be paid eventually by the Ministry of Education and Youth,” stated Williams.
At present, educators in public primary schools are being paid by the ministry of education.
The minister was responding to complaints at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) 58th annual conference being held at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa in St James.
“For some years now we have had a situation where our deductions are not being paid or they have been paid over late. This includes loan repayments, insurance, savings, mortgages and so on,” Williams said.
A JTA member said meetings have been held with the board, the ministry of education, and the Association and a promise was made that as of March 2022 the issue would have been corrected. However, the member said to date, the issue remains.
“I don’t know what is happening. We work for our money. Our salary slip shows that the money is being taken out for the different institutions and they are not going over,” stated the member.
“We are tired of the promises and we want it to be fixed,” she added.
JTA president La Sonja Harrison concurred with the member. Harrison added that she is aware of a colleague who is in arrears of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Meanwhile, Williams said an audit is currently being done of all bursar-paid schools.
“We are doing a comprehensive audit of all bursar-paid schools because this seems to be a recurring problem that needs to be addressed,” stated Williams.
However, Williams said the upcoming changes, which are currently being implemented, will address the issues currently being faced by educators in bursar-paid schools.
“Many of these problems that you would have been experiencing over many years, once we do that, you should not be having these problems and if you do have an issue it will be resolved much faster than it is right now,” Williams assured the over 25,000 members strong union.
