By Latrishka Thomas
The government will be fulfilling its promise to substitute teachers by making them permanent members of staff in short order.
The 109 substitute teachers deployed during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic have been waiting patiently since the Cabinet made this announcement months ago.
During an interview on an Observer radio programme last week, Director of Education Clare Browne said that the process has taken some time because the Public Service Commission had to do its due diligence.
“Things take time. There is a process that must be followed, and so all the paperwork must be completed and must be completed properly,” Browne shared.
He disclosed that the paperwork should be completed this week.
But despite the additional help, Browne said that a few more educators must be employed.
“All the primary schools are covered; one or two skillsets we are looking for in the secondary schools. I was told that we needed to get two more French teachers and then at the end of year we take out a few teachers — maybe about 50 or so — that need to be trained at the Teacher Education Department, and so they, too, will have to be replaced as you take them out,” he disclosed.
Browne added, however, that “for the first time in a very long time, so far as staffing of our schools is concerned, we are beginning in a better place than we have ever begun in recent memory”.