A small number of teachers are yet to receive payments for summer school work which they did last year.
In each of five of the Education and Youth Ministry’s seven regions, the number of teachers affected by the perceived non-payment for summer school is reportedly less than 10.
However, in the two other regions, the numbers are greater.
Acting Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Maureen Dwyer, said the matter is being probed to determine whether payments were already made to the educators supposedly affected by the issue.
“We’re currently in the process of doing an inventory,” Dwyer said at a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House on Wednesday.
“What we’ve found out so far is that there are some anomalies and some misunderstandings by some of our teachers whether the money was placed in their accounts or the ministry did not pay them,” she explained.
She said the ministry is going through its records “to reconcile where we are”.
When pressed by Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Robert Morgan, on the exact number of teachers who reportedly did not receive payment for their participation in the summer school programme last year, Dwyer did not provide the figure.
“I believe that where we have the highest numbers reported its Region IV, but in many of the regions we’re talking about four teachers, six teachers and so on, but we’re doing the reconciliation now,” she informed.
Pressed further by Morgan, Dwyer said “in about five of our regions, the numbers are below 10, but in others the numbers are more.”
She was quick to point out that not all of the 25,000 public school teachers participated in last year’s summer school programme.
There have been reports that some teachers would not be participating in the programme this summer, as many of them cited the very issue of non-payment of their promised compensation.
Reports have not emerged on whether some teachers have stayed away from summer school this year.
Earlier in the press briefing, the Education and Youth Ministry said some 28,000 students are participating in this year’s programme, which has been dubbed ‘Summer Academy’.
A total of 7,800 students will be engaged in the face-to-face modality, and more than 20,000 in the virtual space.
“For the face-to-face, those are students who need support in terms of literacy and numeracy, and in the virtual space, those are students who are almost at mastery and needing little support to get them into mastery,” Williams stated.
She said the ministry is noticing that its targeted interventions relative to summer school are producing results.
