$300 Stipend Not For Teachers’ Personal Use—Wheatley Clarifies

No Image Found!
BVI Platinum News
Education Minister Hon. Natalio ‘Sowande’ Wheatley

(PLTM) - Education Minister Hon. Natalio ‘Sowande’ Wheatley has clarified that the $300 stipend approved for teachers is not for their personal use.

In fact, he said it is to be used to purchase resources to ensure their respective classrooms are in a ready state.

“Just to remind persons, this $300 stipend really has to do with the monies that teachers expend to be able to buy their resources to get their classrooms ready, not to be mistaken with some sort of raise,” he said in the House of Assembly last evening, September 22.

The minister was at the time speaking under the Supplementary Appropriation Provision (SAP) Motion where the monies for the teachers were approved, “within this adjustment budget, the teachers will be receiving their $300 stipend which they requested.”

Hon. Wheatley said the issue of salary increase for teachers will be addressed in the upcoming salary review for public servants.

“…Of course the director of HR has recently informed us about the salary review that is coming up where we are going to review the salaries and make sure that persons within the entire public service are being paid that commensurate with their qualifications and experience and also their impact,” he stated.

Recently Wheatley pushed back against criticisms over government’s decision to provide teachers with the $300 stipend each for this academic year 2021/2022. He said it was the teachers through its union who requested that amount.

Following the announcement in late August, Opposition Leader Hon. Marlon Penn called out the minister.

“I am sure the teachers are grateful, and members of the community are [grateful] but come on, don’t use this as some ploy that you scrape at the bottom of the barrel to find this money. Like you are the saviour for the teachers,” the Opposition Leader said.

He added, “when on the other hand we are taking millions of dollars- we had fishing and farming grants $2M jumped to $6.2M and counting, $4 additional million dollars and you are talking about scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

-----
Copyright 2023 by Virgin Islands Platinum News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Reader Opinion
Please note that the opinions posted are the opinions of its author and does not in any way reflect the views of the management, staff, parent company or sponsors of Virgin Islands Platinum News.
There are no comments to show at this time.
Cruise Schedule
IN PORT - TODAY ( 29 March )
We have no cruise ship in port on this day!
IN PORT - TOMORROW ( 30 March )
We have no cruise ship in port on this day!