School Teachers’ Pensions Amendment Bill Introduced in House

A significant change to teachers’ retirement arrangements was brought before the House of Representatives today with the introduction of the School Teachers’ Pensions (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The Bill, presented during the sitting at the George Price Government Center, aims to clarify how pensions are calculated for teachers in aided-schools and to give legal effect to components of the collective bargaining agreement covering the 2021-2024 period. Among the proposed changes are the clarification of pension calculations for teachers in government-aided schools, ensuring that factors such as years of service, salary scales, and pensionable allowances are clearly defined in law.  It also clarified the implementation of portions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for 2021-2024 relating to teacher pensions. Minister of Education, Oscar Requena, marked the Bill as a crucial benefit for teachers.

Oscar Requena, Minister of Education: “This is so significant because as Minister from Freetown said earlier our teachers now going back retroactive September 2024 have a surety that when they retire they are going to be getting 100% of their retirement benefits whether it is a gratuity or whether it is a pension. But it goes beyond that that not only did the bill take into account the teachers but also the support staff that the yard man, the security guard and other auxiliary staff members will also enjoy full benefits to their gratuity benefits. This is significant and I want to thank Mr. Francis, DPM Cordel Hyde, certainly Minister Usher and all the members of the Joint Negotiating Team who worked very hard with the unions, the PSU and the Association of Senior Managers and everybody who worked diligently to ensure that they could arrive to this moment.”

The Bill went through its three readings in today’s sitting.