Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath has clar­i­fied that none of the $127.8 mil­lion in sup­ple­men­tal fund­ing be­ing sought by his min­istry in­cludes pro­vi­sions for out­stand­ing back­pay for teach­ers, de­spite on­go­ing con­cerns from ed­u­ca­tors and their rep­re­sen­ta­tive unions over de­lays in re­ceiv­ing retroac­tive pay­ments.

Dowlath made the dis­clo­sure dur­ing yes­ter­day’s meet­ing of the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee in Par­lia­ment, while re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Op­po­si­tion MP for St Ann’s East Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly.

The com­mit­tee was ex­am­in­ing a re­quest for an ad­di­tion­al $127,779,300 for the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion when Gads­by-Dol­ly sought clar­i­fi­ca­tion on whether any por­tion of the al­lo­ca­tion would be used to set­tle out­stand­ing back­pay oblig­a­tions to teach­ers.