On Thursday morning, APNU-AFC Member of Parliament, Ms. Maureen Philadelphia, retracted her statement and issued an apology for her statement issued in January, where she asserted that teachers who dropped out of training college and those who hadn’t received grades were still graduating and teaching in schools.
Despite facing pressure in the National Assembly to substantiate her claim and having a five-month window to do so, she failed to produce any evidence. This morning, Philadelphia withdrew and apologized for her statement. Two other APNU-AFC Members of Parliament Ms. Cathy Hughes and Ms. Juretha Fernandes had also withdrawn and apologised to the House for making wholly untrue claims regarding the education sector.
The Ministry of Education has achieved a historic milestone with 99 per cent of teachers being trained or are in training. This is in keeping with the ministry’s Education Sector plan to have 100 per cent trained teachers in the classroom. This achievement has also facilitated a significant decrease in the teacher to student ratio in classrooms and is expected to produce a higher quality of education across levels.