BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The Barbados government says it will reinstate from April 1, this year, term leave benefits for teachers allowing them to be granted a full school term off with pay after 15 years of service and every five years thereafter.
Education Transformation Minister, Chad Blackman, third from right, flanked by education and trade union officials at news conference.“It therefore now gives me great pleasure… to be able to announce to the country that the term’s leave is officially reinstated as of the 1st of April 2026,” Education Transformation Minister, Chad Blackman told a news conference.
The move by the government comes more than a decade of discussions and protest with Blackman telling reporters that the management of the ministry “had a very fruitful and definitive meeting with our trade union partners to bring resolution to a long-standing matter which of course has been the subject of great public debate over the last 12 years, namely the reinstating of what is commonly referred to as the pre-2014 term’s leave to those teachers who meet the criteria.”
The provision was suspended in 2014 as part of measures to reduce the government’s wage bill during austerity measures. At the time, the teaching service avoided job cuts faced by other public sector workers, but the leave arrangement was restricted to first-time applicants and those nearing retirement.
Subsequent changes to the public service’s General Order 5.1 in 2015 were intended to last one year, but the restriction remained in place for over a decade, prompting sustained advocacy by the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) and other interest groups.
The issue escalated in recent years, including a two-day strike by the BUT last April and legal action dating back to 2017.
Blackman in acknowledging the protracted negotiations and credited unions and teachers for maintaining pressure on the issue, told reporters “I want to start by unreservedly thanking our unions for not just their patience but their strong advocacy holding us of course to the fire but doing so in good faith and being able to represent their members”.
He described the change as a “momentous day and no doubt one that marks an incredible relief to our nation’s educators and by extension their families” noting that Cabinet approval, along with coordination between the ministries of education, finance and the public service, paved the way for implementation while ensuring minimal disruption to teaching and learning.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education Transformation Kim Belle said teachers would be eligible for their term’s leave after serving 15 years of service and that the ministry will now move to address a backlog of eligible teachers accumulated over the past 12 years, supported by an electronic application system.
“Because we do know there will be a backlog because we’re looking at a period of say 12 years… it would allow us to be able to move a bit quickly in relation to determining who those persons are eligible,” she said, noting that caps will remain in place to protect continuity in the classroom, limiting leave approvals to 140 teachers at the primary level and 110 at the secondary level per term, with no more than ten per cent of a school’s staff absent at any given time.
“We still need to be mindful of making sure that the teaching and learning process is not negatively impacted in any way when the term’s leave is granted,” she said.
