ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA (Commonwealth Union)_The Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers has threatened to start industrial action if the government does not put in place a 24-hour security system at every school on the island by Tuesday, according to the country’s education minister, Daryll Matthew. “We have asked for a meeting (on Monday) at 1:00 p.m. where we can sit down and talk about and air out this issue. I believe that the government can instantly provide around-the-clock security, regardless of the expense to the nation’s tax payers. It’s a completely impractical and unreasonable request, in my opinion,” Mathew said.
Castro Charles, the union’s president, informed the government in a letter last Friday that teachers would strike on Tuesday if the Gaston Browne administration did not implement round-the-clock security at every school on the island by that day. The union claimed that teachers had provided the government with numerous opportunities to address the “reign of terror that is being imposed on us by vandals” and have been more than accommodating.
Seven incidences of burglary and vandalism at both primary and secondary institutions occurred between September 5, 2022, and September 28, 2022, according to our records, the letter stated. According to the ABUT, when these occurrences happen, teachers and even students experience varied degrees of aggravation, worry, a drop in morale, and a loss of contact time, while the culprits grow more confident to carry out their assault on the nation’s educational institutions.
The union claimed that despite verbal and written assurances that 24-hour security would be implemented by September 15, 2022, over 90% of the schools designated to get it are still waiting. Daryll Matthew, however, asserted that the administration has always worked to make sure that all of the island’s schools are secure and that teachers can carry out their duties “in a safe and wholesome fashion.
The education minister said: “It is an additional expense on the taxpayers of this country that really ought not to be there.” He added that citizens should share responsibility for the continued security issue at the schools.
