The Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers (ABUT) has apparently set a deadline of this coming Friday for the government to implement a temporary proposal to address security concerns at the nation’s public schools.
According to reliable sources, this new deadline came out of a meeting yesterday between the union and a portion of its membership, to discuss the way forward with regards to previous deadlines and threats of industrial action.
Concerns over safety and security at the schools continue to mount due to the prevalence of break-ins and vandalism, and in a letter to the Education Ministry last week, the union threatened to withhold the services of its membership if 24-hour security was not provided for the schools by Monday of this week.
That threat prompted the Education Ministry to request an urgent meeting with the union’s President, Casroy Charles Jr, in a likely bid to avoid any type of strike action.
Following that meeting on Monday, it was decided that all public schools would remain closed on Tuesday to allow the union to meet with its members, to decide on their next approach.
Charles Jr told Observer yesterday afternoon that the meeting “went well” and that a proposal was received, with the union’s membership given an opportunity to voice their views on said proposal.
He added that the union was preparing a formal response to the government, but stopped short of confirming the alleged Friday deadline.
Reports coming out of Tuesday’s meeting are that industrial action will be taken on Monday if elements of the proposal aren’t put in place by Friday.
One of the proposed solutions to the security challenge is after-hour patrols at select school plants by the police and the defence force, until measures like the installation of CCTV cameras are fully implemented.
Regular classes at the public schools are expected to resume today – at the time of writing – but will be suspended for the afternoon session to allow teachers to attend a World Teachers Day rally.
Primary Schools will be dismissed at 12:30 pm and Secondary Schools at 1:00 pm.