last night at its annual general meeting.

General Secretary Mike Charles said he was delighted so many teachers took time out to attend the event, which he said seems to get better attended every year.

The only topic up for discussion was the imminent pay negotiations, which he hoped would get underway with the Ministry of Education in April.

The pay structure of teachers is up for discussion every two years.

No figures have been talked about yet, but he said the teachers were eager to ensure their pay increases this year matched the rate of inflation and tax increases proposed in the budget.

He said: "We mostly talked about the up and coming negotiations -- that is uppermost in everybody's minds.

"We plan to meet very soon with school representatives, so they can let us know what issues and concerns they want presented at the negotiations, which will be coming up sometime soon.

"We would like to get started as soon as possible -- hopefully by April -- these things can take anything between three and six months, but last time it was longer.

"The sooner we get started, the sooner we can get things sorted out.'' At the meeting last night Anthony Wolffe was voted in as president, vice-president is now Joann Adams, treasurer is Henry James, and recording secretary is Angel Heyliger.

Mr. Charles said: "The turn out at the meeting was very encouraging. We had upwards of about 120 teachers, counsellors and professionals there, which is very good, especially when there is school the next day.

"People came and showed their support, which is the main thing, but there are not usually many discussions at these meetings because teachers are very tired.

"They came to the meeting after school because they knew it was important to show their support, but they wanted to get home because they had classes tomorrow.

"We will just have to wait and see how the negotiations go now.''