Handout

Teachers receive a more than decent salary in St. Maarten. Figures presented by Minister Jacobs (Education) during the handling of the 2017 draft budget in December of last year show that the average annual salary for a public school teacher is $52,730, or $4,394 per month.

After Hurricane Irma, we did not hear anything about applying the no-work-no pay rule to teachers so we may safely assume that their salaries arrived as usual at the end of September and October.

Now Minister Jacobs has given these teachers a token of appreciation: a voucher worth around $112 for shopping.

Like it or not, one may indeed wonder whether this is part of a prohibited departure policy of an outgoing minister. One may also wonder whether teachers who earn such a comfortable salary really need those hundred bucks and whether that money would not be better spent on vulnerable citizens like pensioners, the unemployed and hurricane victims who are living in much more dire circumstances.

The handout to teachers may be based on the best of intentions but from our perspective it does not look good at all.