From Trinidad Newsday- TEACHERS’ response to a call to stay away from schools on the first day of the 2022/2023 academic year angered parents on Monday, as hundreds of excited children were left disappointed by their decision to take a day to rest on reflect.

A total of 305,000 students and a little over 30,100 teachers were expected to return to physical classses but the Ministry of Education, on Monday afternoon, said 3,243 teachers reported for duty at government and denominational schools.

Data from the Division of School Supervision said 17 per cent of students turned up for classes and 27 per cent of teachers reported for duty at primary schools. That’s 16,819 pupils and 1,392 teachers.

At denominational primary schools, the teacher and student attendance was 28 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, while the corresponding attendance at government schools was 24 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.

At secondary schools 28,738 students and 1,851 teachers – 39 and 31 per cent respectively –were present.

At denominational secondary schools, the teacher and student attendances were 47 per cent and 68 per cent respectively, while the corresponding attendance at government schools was 25 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.

For many students, Monday would have been the first normal school day in two years since the start of the covid19 pandemic in 2020.

A week ago the ministry confirmed its readiness to have the education system finally normalised. The minister, Nyan Gadsby-Dolly was aware of the planned boycott and urged teachers to ignore the call of their union.

But teachers had already approached their union president asking to send a message to the government.

Last Friday, TTUTA publicly rejected Chief Personnel Officer Dr Daryl Dindial’s latest offer of a four per cent wage increase to settle wage for the 2014-2019 collective bargaining period.

And so, TUTTA decided to stay away from classes to show their dissatisfaction with the offer and to highlight poor working conditions.

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