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Teach­ers re­turned to class­rooms yes­ter­day af­ter two days of low at­ten­dance in what was re­port­ed as a “silent protest,” bring­ing re­lief to par­ents who had kept chil­dren home over fears of un­su­per­vised class­rooms. While nor­mal­cy has been par­tial­ly re­stored, frus­tra­tion over de­layed salary in­creas­es re­mains a sig­nif­i­cant con­cern.

Re­ports reach­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) ex­ec­u­tive in­di­cat­ed im­proved at­ten­dance among both teach­ers and stu­dents. Sev­er­al teach­ers, how­ev­er, told Guardian Me­dia that ab­sen­teeism was dri­ven by dis­sat­is­fac­tion with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s de­lay in im­ple­ment­ing the five per cent salary in­crease agreed up­on in April 2025.

In a me­dia re­lease on Wednes­day, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion re­mind­ed staff that the agreed salary in­creas­es and re­lat­ed pay­ments are in the im­ple­men­ta­tion phase, not­ing that all nec­es­sary ad­min­is­tra­tive process­es are un­der­way ac­cord­ing to pub­lic ser­vice pro­ce­dures. Cab­i­net rat­i­fied the new terms and con­di­tions on­ly this week.