“If you decide you are not taking the vaccine, choices have consequences,” says the St. Vincent prime minister Ralph Gonsalves.
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves was at the time responding to the West St George Secondary School teachers who recently staged a “sit in” at their staff room in solidarity with all their unvaccinated colleagues.
Gonsalves, on Wednesday, appealed to those teachers to not punish the students by going to school and not teaching them.
He says there are two obligations high on the totem pole, the safety of the children and the education of the children.
He further added that if teachers want to go to school and stay in their staffroom, he can instruct the Ministry of Education to hire other teachers to teach.
hiring retired teachers on short term contracts Gonsalves says is also an option and he has given instructions to the Ministry, if need be, not only there but anywhere else, to do so. He adds that he will make a Cabinet decision that they (retired teachers) will continue to get their pension and whatever payment they get under the new contract.
“You want to go to school and stay in the staffroom? I ain’t send any police to move you. I will just get somebody else to teach people’s children including, if necessary, retired teachers and I will pass a Cabinet decision to have them paid whatever their remuneration under the new contract (short term) whilst they still continue to get their pension for what they have served already.”
The prime minister says and I quote “That is how high on the totem pole I put the children”.
Gonsalves noted he has nothing personal against anybody who is choosing not to take the vaccine within the framework of the regulations but is urging them to make the rationale and clear choice.
