Thursday, April 20, 2023, Nesmy Manigat, the Minister of National Education met with around fifty trade union teachers who represented around thirty trade union organizations for the defense of teachers.

During this meeting, the Minister wished to hear these teachers on a series of very important questions such as appointment, regularization of the status of those who work without a letter of appointment, salary adjustment, salary arrears, card debit and issue of salary checks delivered many days late.

This meeting was an opportunity for trade unionists to say what they think about other problems that are troubling the education sector, particularly in the metropolitan region of Port-au-Prince : schools that do not function properly because they do not have good premises; schools forced to move or in some cases close due to violence; or teachers who cannot cross certain dangerous areas to work in another area.

Some trade unionists have raised the need to submit to the authorities of the Ministry of National Education the list of demands which collects all the expressions of the struggle of trade union organizations in the education sector.

See together what is possible in this context in the meantime, negotiations can be opened on this list of demands declared the Minister Manigat specifying that there were demands to which the Transitional Government can endeavor to respond, and that there are others that only an elected Government and a Parliament can facilitate.

According to director Etienne Louisseul France, there are no salary arrears for teachers in the West department as they have all already received their checks for March 2023 between Friday 14 and Monday 17 April.

On the question of teachers' checks that certain departmental directorates of education withhold because these teachers are never present in class, Nesmy Manigat recalled that the State cannot continue to issue checks to absent teachers without even knowing whether these teachers are still in the country or not or whether they are still interested in their profession.

During this control period, no other person is authorized to cash a teacher's check. It is the concerned himself who must do it. According to Minister Manigat, this is a measure that should give the State more resources to appoint or regularize the files of many teachers who are waiting.

Regarding the strike movement of teachers in several public schools in Port-au-Prince and in some provincial towns which began this week, the Minister encouraged these teachers to return to work in the interest of students who must not lose the rest of the school year See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-39324-haiti-education-open-letter-from-nesmy-manigat-to-his-fellow-teachers.html

HL/ HaitiLibre