St. Martin News Network

Rhoda as a parent I fully support your actions. Ghost employees who spend years on sick leave should leave and not get paid every month lik e a teacher who works every day . It is unfair that 13 scavengers are paid tax payees hard earned money and don't perform. Look at this.....13 x 4000=52000. multiply that by 12 months and you get a total of Naf.624000.00. These teachers are milking the system and it is time for them yto be sacked. Claire need to have those teachers in her private school and let us see how she would handle those ghosts. She would fire their butts in a new York minute.

Agree Robby totally !
Claire is bias: Minister Arrindell just ask Claire one question: What is your solution if 3 teachers in your school are on sick leave for a long time?

If those teachers are really sick no problem as the law will protect them, but those that are prolonging their sickness unnecessarily a dismissal procedure should be started once they are back on the job to send a strong message for those who has the same ideas.

my child told me one time that her teacher had one year sick leave never got one day lesson how can this be one whole year no work but getting paid full salary unbelievable

Teachers are working under some serious pressure and it is unfortunate Rhoda does not try to support them.

What has she done for teachers? Nothing

Teachers make around 2000 guilders for all the pains and stress of the field.

Fully support Rhoda on this issue, please extend to ALL CIVIL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS as soon as possible!

Instead of squeezing more tax dollars out of compliant taxpayers, G'ment should do MUCH more to tighten it's own belt, starting with Ghost employees, high salaries of MP's and Ministers, Car & Gas Allowances etc etc.

Before you come knocking on my door again, please check yourself first!

None cares for the Civil-Servant ....inculded the PRIME Minister neither. People listen this is what we vote for ...We become like the private sector!!!!!!!!!! Hire and can be fired after 3 warning letter.after this 10-10-10.............O my GOD ...But i still believe what Rhoda is doing right now is good ,dont mess with the kids education....Year out of school so who is teaching these kids then????????????Get ride of the yes !!!!!!!!!!!!!O YES

Get rid of those ghost teachers, rapido. I guess NA Marlin wife is one of those teachers. Out for years (atleast 3 or 4 years) if I am not mistaken. Claire Elshot also, getting paid monthly by government to critize plus with all increments etc. In another country she surely will sing a different tune. Get rid of her too. I heard teachers just started in August 2011 and some are already pregnant. This means more financial burden for government. Get rid of them now and too boot all foreigners who are pregnant. Nothing a tall go so in other countries. Pregnant in just a few months of work, out you go as this will mean in the long run 2 salaries and not 1 salary.

These unions gotta wake up and stop this abuse of our government. this is too much going on here with these teachers. if they dont want to work then fire them one time.

With (Oh yes)these foreigners don't have love for the country,they is just for the money...And too hell with us !!! that is what you are hearing every day out of a foreigners mouth...I a real.. SXM..hate them

Much ignorance and little common sense. Yes we do need to get rid of ghost teachers, because you made a commitment to teacher our children and not just to collect a salary. But this issue need to be looked at carefully so that we don't throw away the child with the bath water. When hiring teachers you should tell them upfront that if they intend to extend their family with the first year (or two), they will have to look for another job. By doing that you secure a teacher for that cla** or subject, because they are then aware of the consequences. Do not tell them after the fact, because then you are wrong.
Another issue that needs to be looked at is what support are given to these teachers with the work load that is being dumped on them. They are human. You cannot continue dropping demands and more workload ( they also have administrative duties for each child in their cla**) on them and don't give them any support. Because then your asking for them to go on sick leave because they are overworked. Personally I wouldn't want an overworked teacher to teach my child. In large countries they are going back to smaller cla**es because they have seen that big cla**es are not working and many children are falling trough the cracks.
We should not bash foreign teachers if we don't provide proper guide lines for them to comply with and we don't encourage our youngsters to study what the foreign teacher is being hired for. If our government don't have a proper planning for what type of teachers they will be in need of over a xx amount of years, then yes foreign teachers need to be hired. For years government has been lacks in proper planning and having civil servant in high position dictating what should happen based on air and their ego( which, by the way ,is also based on air). Foreign teachers just join the band of corruption that they see going on in St. Maarten, from government go down. Don't blame them for that, they too need to survive. Look at what was brought in to run USM and look at what's happening to some hard working locals. When our highest officials set such an example, what do you expect from anyone else (foreign or not).
What is happening here is, we want to change the symptoms but we don't want to tackle the root. Tackling the symptoms is what brings in votes.
Elshot is right when she states that teachers rights of privacy is being violated when their files are put out like that. The person that is responsible for that should be fire immediately. The Minister should know better than to accept peoples files being brought to her. What had to happen is that the employer in charge of handling these files should have made a report on the different cases and present that report to her. That the way that works in government. But because these people doesn't know how to make a proper report, they take the easy way out and drop the whole file on some ones desk. These teachers should take them to court for breaching their priva...

I support Rhoda on this... This is the NORM here on St. Maarten, forever sick and collecting pay..

More out than in!!! get rid of them and make a law across the board for it! Hell that and bad attitude / loafing... dont perform YOUR OUT!!.. there are other people that are willing to do the job right.

Privacy?!?! whatever we all have the right to know the medical condition of our childs teacher... specially those ridden with AIDS and Herpies!!! i know of at least 3!!

What about teachers who are every month absent for days?