Marking of SBAs...CUT continues advocacy for CXC to pay teachers

Marking of SBAs…CUT continues advocacy for CXC to pay teachers

Mar 10, 2017 News

-CXC insists governments should pay

“It is not an easy battle but we will continue to push to ensure that teachers are justly rewarded for the jobs that they perform.” This is the assertion of Third Vice President of the Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT), Ms. Coretta McDonald.
McDonald’s disclosure was in response to a question about the controversy surrounding the

Ms. Coretta McDonald

failure of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) to pay teachers for marking School Based Assessments.
Although teachers have for years been tasked with marking the SBAs presented by students as part of the Caribbean Secondary Education Examination (CSEC), a few years back a call was made for CXC to financially compensate the teachers. But CXC has not embraced the notion that it should pay for the services rendered by teachers.
McDonald disclosed that CXC has, instead, been directing the calls for payment to the governments of the respective CXC territories.
“I know (CUT) would have had our engagements with CXC in Barbados and they have said to us at that level that we should be engaging our Ministers of Education in the various territories…They have said that we should be engaging our Governments because they are the ones who should be paying and not CXC,” McDonald said.
But CUT is convinced that CXC has the financial wherewithal to pay, McDonald intimated.
The CUT Vice President said, “When you look at what is happening now, CXC is making huge sums of money. As a matter of fact CXC has started e-marking which will cost them far less because they don’t have to pay for accommodation and meals and all of that for persons anymore, so they have the money to pay.”
In light of this development, McDonald said that CUT will continue to advocate for teachers to be paid. “We will continue to push our Ministers of Education and our Governments to look into this matter.”
At the local level, she disclosed that Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), a body on which she sits as the General Secretary, has had discussions with the Minister of Education. She recalled that the issue was brought to the attention of two Education Ministers – the current MInister and the Minister under the previous regime.
McDonald is however concerned that the CXC territories have failed to adopt a united approach to deal with the payment matter. “I think what is happening when the Ministers of Education meet at Caricom forums is causing a breakdown of this advocacy…While some territories are saying that they are going to take on the responsibility for paying the teachers, others are saying we are not going to do that and I think that is where the problem is.
“Some are for it and some are against it; no decision has been arrived at, hence this is where the situation of marking of SBAs is,” said McDonald.
Although unsure what course of action the Ministers of Education will eventually take, McDonald said with certainty, “I think it is going to reach the stage where teachers just decide we are not marking anymore, full stop.”
“It is quite unfair because there are other people who invigilate other aspects of the examinations and are paid to do so but teachers who are manning the entire process and completing the projects are not being paid at all,” McDonald highlighted.
According to her, “Teachers are saying ‘for too long we have been taken for granted.’ We know that it can have an adverse effect on students but what teachers are prepared to do is to help complete the process but refuse to mark. When CXC sends for the samples the teachers will just send them without putting any scores to them…let them (CXC) do the scoring.”
The marking controversy has been an issue that has been on the front burner for some time. Teachers, according to McDonald, have been complaining about the additional work that is expected of them.
(Their job) not only includes them having to prepare the students and take them through the process of having the SBAs completed but also marking same. This is in light of the fact that SBAs do not constitute an internal examination but rather is an external examination.
McDonald noted,
“At our various executive council meetings we have argued back and forth about this situation but where it is at right now, it is at a level where Barbados has been pushing for payment and they will continue to push for payment for marking SBAs.”
Guyana has also been pushing for payment, according to McDonald, “We have other units now coming on board.”
“Here in Guyana, we have started our own bit. Our teachers are saying, especially when you look at the sciences, there are a lot of components as it relates to the SBAs where you have to do several labs and all of these are work that you have to do to add up to complete the SBAs. And having spoken to teachers in Georgetown quite a lot of them are prepared to take the children through the process but not mark the actual SBA,” McDonald asserted.