Some 31 teachers will be leaving the education system ahead of the upcoming 2021-2022 academic school year, leaving a total of 47 vacancies to be filled.
This was revealed by the Education Minister Dr. Natalio Wheatley, during a recent session of the House of Assembly.
He was responding to questions posed by the Second District Representative Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull, who requested for the minister to give a detailed report on the respective vacancies within the school system.
According to Dr. Wheatley, of the 31 persons leaving, 12 are retirees while the remaining 19 are persons who indicated they will not be returning.
He said, “At this time it is difficult to say how many teachers and how many staff will leave at the end of this school year since information is still being received at the ministry. At the primary level there are 7 teachers who have indicated their desire to retire and 5 from the secondary level. This gives us a total of 12 retirees throughout our system.”
“Our records indicate that there are approximately 19 teachers who left during the current school year or who have indicated that they will not be returning at the beginning of the upcoming 2021-2022 school year. As a result, the total number of teachers to be replaced is 31,” he further explained.
Meanwhile Dr. Wheatley also revealed that despite having 31 teachers departing the system, there are a total of 47 teaching vacancies to be filled.
These include: 1 vacancy at the Althea Scatliffe Primary School, 5 at Claudia Creque Educational Centre, 1 at Enid Scatliffe Pre-Primary School, 1 at Eslyn Henley Richiez Learning Centre, 2 at Francis Lettsome Primary School, 1 substitute teacher at Jost Van Dyke Primary School, 1 at Joyce Samuel Primary School, 1 at Leonora Delville Primary School, 3 at the Virgin Islands School of Technical Studies, 8 at Bregado Flax Educational Centre Secondary Division and 15 at the Elmore Stoutt High School.
In addition, the Dr. Wheatley said that a total of 40 positions are to be filled with specialist professionals in the public schools.
The minister subsequently said he was informed that some of the positions have already been filled with the recent Teaching Service Commission interviews.
He further informed the House that all vacancies for principals in the territory have been filled.