There are currently more than sixty of them and very soon before the public protest for this cause, they will be more than a hundred. The Union of Private Secondary Education Employees (UPSEE) does not intend to comply to the decisions of the Private Secondary Education Authority (PSEA) without any explanation. The reason is that the same qualifications are recognised by the Public Service Commission (PSC).
PSEA is not superior to the PSC
“The PSEA cannot consider itself higher than the PSC as a body. If the PSC recognises these qualifications, then the PSEA does not want to recognise these teaching licences. We currently have over 60 teachers in Mauritius and Rodrigues who are members of the UPSEE and who have been gradually dismissed since 2021. Our requests for clarification remain unanswered. The Ministry of Education is silent on the matter,” says Arvind Bhojun, the secretary of the UPSEE. According to the recent unravelling of the PSEA and the power given to the Ministry of Education to manage all finances, projects and grants to private schools, the PSEA, headed by Mahesswarnath Luchoomun, is seen to be doing “as it pleases with all those who constitute private secondary education. The number of teachers who have been dismissed and those who have resigned for the same reasons is over a hundred and they are not members of our Union. There are also those who have already taken up other posts after applying to the PSC,” says Arvin Bhojun, referring to Design & Techonology teachers who were rejected by PSEA but approved by the PSC and are currently in post!
Rodrigues CCM drags PSEA to ERT and EOC
Teachers in Rodrigues have been fighting PSEA since October 2021 and are suing this institution since end of 2021. “The last verdict of the Commission for Conciliation and Mediation (CCM) in Rodrigues was in favour of the teachers but still, PSEA is adamant. The case had to be referred to the Employment Relation Tribunal and the Equal Opportunity Commission. The next hearing is scheduled for 1st April and we are waiting patiently on the outcome of this matter,” says the UPSEE secretary.
Request for Mahen Seeruttun’s intervention
Nevertheless, they do not intend to remain quiet about the fate of the teachers, who may number more than a hundred after the census. “We have written to the Minister of Good Governance, Mahen Seeruttun, so that he can intervene where other ministers have not been able to,” says Arvind Bhojun. The date of the new event is not yet set. The UPSEE is determined to take the case of all teachers to the Employment Relation Tribunal and the Equal Opportunity Commission, if the situation does not change in favour of these hundreds of affected teachers.
