The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion met with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) on Thurs­day to dis­cuss sev­er­al is­sues af­fect­ing teach­ers, schools and the wider ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.

Ac­cord­ing to a me­dia re­lease, the meet­ing formed part of the Min­istry’s on­go­ing ef­forts to strength­en col­lab­o­ra­tion with key stake­hold­ers and en­sure ed­u­ca­tors’ con­cerns re­main cen­tral to na­tion­al ed­u­ca­tion ini­tia­tives.

Among the is­sues dis­cussed were teacher salary ar­rears and back­pay, the fill­ing of va­can­cies, the pro­cess­ing of leave and oth­er ben­e­fits, im­prov­ing ser­vice ef­fi­cien­cies with­in the Min­istry, school up­grades and in­fra­struc­tur­al im­prove­ment pro­grammes, and strength­en­ing sup­port for Safe­ty and Health Com­mit­tees in schools across the coun­try.