“We will tell our teachers what this government is considering,” SVGTU Warns 

By Admin. Updated 9:55 p.m., Sunday, March 22, 2026, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).

A senior member of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union (SVGTU) has issued a stern warning to the Minister of Education, Phillip Jackson, over several undisclosed concerns and recent ministerial statements.

Appearing on Teacher’s Talk, broadcast on Boom 106.9 radio today (22 March), SVGTU’s newly elected first vice-president, Mr Oswald Robinson, who has served as union president seven times, declared:

“…if he wants to go down in the Guinness Book of Records, as the shortest serving minister of education, it would happen in this country.”

“I’m warning you…We will tell our teachers what this government is considering. That would be the first protest in this country, and we will mobilise the entire nation.

“You come in to beat up the very same teachers who vote for you and put you there…,” Robinson continued.

His remarks appear to arise from recent interactions with the Ministry of Education Vocational Training, Innovation and Digital Transformation and comments reportedly made by Minister Jackson.

On 20 March, Searchlight newspaper quoted Jackson as saying: “I’ll tell you something I’ve noticed as an educator, and now as an education administrator, there’s a kind of a lack of empathy among the persons who deliver our education services.”

“While there are still many teachers who love what they do, there some of them, who for them, teaching is just a job. And for them, the students are just students,” Minister of Education, Vocational Training, Innovation and Digital Transformation Philip Jackson told participants at a recent consultation on school violence, Searchlight reported.

Although Robinson did not disclose the alleged plans by the Ministry of Education concerning teachers, he stated during the live broadcast:

“You want them now to use their vacation to teach X, Y, and Z. That not happening. We will talk to our teachers and we’ll mobilise the country against you.”

SVGTU President Fiona Charles Williams expressed that she was “very disappointed” in the minister. She urged teachers to join the SVGTU to secure their protection.

She added that, at no point in time has anybody ever checked on the mental health of teachers.

Mr Robinson warned: “You’re going down the wrong road. We’re not going to ease up.” He added that the minister should focus on fixing issues at the nation’s schools, cautioning that the union would take the matters to the media if they were not addressed.

“And if you don’t fix them, you’ll be in trouble. Serious trouble. When you interfere with the teachers union and the workers in this country, we will show you our strength. This is not about violence, you know. We’re going to exercise our trade union rights and we would show you what we stand for in this country,” Robinson stated.

END