TNAG-1124-FCO40-1399-Implementation-of-the-International-Covenant-on-Economic--So-1982 — Page 71

E/1982/3/Add.16

English Page 65

(4) The main difficulties encountered are the unavoidable financial constraints in government fiscal policies.

H.

Establishment of an adequate fellowship system

(1) As stated above, education at all levels in the Territory is largely free. This is so even for tertiary level education which has to be undertaken abroad,

(2) There is no discrimination on any basis except that it is Government and funding agencies policy that those selected for post secondary training should be Turks and Caicos Islanders, resident in the islands. There is no programme to overcome the obstacle of poverty. Poverty, however, is a very negligible factor in the realization of the goal of the right to education,

(3) Difficulties in this respect, where they exist are minor, and due to lack of adequate funds.

I.

Improvement of the material conditions of teaching staff

(1) There are no special laws or administrative regulations etc., specifically designed to improve the material conditions of the teaching staff;

(2)

Teachers are paid on the basis of their qualifications in the categories of untrained, trained and graduate. Teachers are encouraged to continue their education and improve their qualifications. Over the years they have constituted a large proportion of those selected for higher education abroad;

(3) Teachers do not have an industrial organization of their own, but they are represented in the Civil Service Association. Teachers do not participate formally and directly in the formulation of educational plans at a national level, but they do participate in the running of their particular schools within the framework of national policy,

(4) Teachers in the Territory are not as well paid as their counterparts in other countries in the region. But this is a condition common to the Civil Service as a whole.

Right to choice of school

J.

(1)

Although the Board of Education Regulations stipulate that children of school age shall attend a school controlled by the Board of Education, transferees from private to government schools are not as a rule rejected. Neither is any legal action taken against parents who choose for their children schools other than those controlled by the Board;

(2) The Education Ordinance prescribes that "the Bible shall be a daily class book in every school receiving aid from the Board, and no child shall be excluded from any such school on account of his religious denomination. But because the population of the islands is almost wholly Christian, it cannot be said that this

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