Delayed Summer School Payments Expected by October 15

It has been just over a month since the National Summer School programme ended mid-August and still, hundreds of teachers have yet to be paid for their work during that time.

Speaking at the post Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday, October 6, 2021, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Grace Mclean, assures that the are payments still processing and will be completed by mid-October. She note that up to 3500 teachers were engaged in the face-to-face summer school progamme and added that so far over 2000 of these teachers have been paid.

The Ministry is taking full responsibility for the approximately one month delay and estimates that the rest of the payments will be made by mid-October. The National Summer School programme, which was designed to help students recover from learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, ran from July 5 to August 19. The programme provided students with lessons on platforms including the Learning Hub, EduFocal, and One on One Educational Services Limited.

Efforts to get a comment from Jamaica Teachers Association, (JTA) President Winston Smith proved futile, as we were told up to news time, he was locked in a meeting.

More in this CVM Live story from Jhanielle Powell: