TTUTA questions ministry’s claim that 95% of teachers received backpay

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) is ques­tion­ing the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s claim that 95 per cent of back­pay owed to ac­tive teach­ers has been dis­bursed, say­ing it has not re­ceived the in­for­ma­tion need­ed to ver­i­fy the fig­ure.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, TTUTA Pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe said the min­istry had not pro­vid­ed the as­so­ci­a­tion with da­ta on the num­ber of serv­ing and re­tired ed­u­ca­tors who had re­ceived out­stand­ing salary ar­rears for the 2020–2023 pe­ri­od.

The min­istry, in a state­ment on Fri­day, said 95 per cent of back­pay pay­ments to ac­tive teach­ers had al­ready been dis­bursed, de­scrib­ing this as sub­stan­tial progress in set­tling out­stand­ing salary ar­rears.