The Island's teacher union is to call its members to an emergency meeting next week to discuss a salary proposal put forward by the Ministry of Education.

President of the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) Anthony Wolffe said he could not disclose details about the offer but said it solely dealt with salary increases.

The Ministry made the offer at a meeting with the BUT executive yesterday morning where the issues of salary and teacher evaluations were on the agenda.

"We have a salary proposal and now we must present it to the teachers," said Mr. Wolffe.

"We are calling an emergency meeting for teachers for next Wednesday. I can't go into what the offer is. Our teachers will decide whether its worth while considering it."

But Mr. Wolffe said the union firmly believed that teachers deserved a substantial increase to bring them in line with senior civil servants with the same degree qualifications.

He said the union believed Government needed to take steps to encourage teachers to stay in the profession and to entice others to take up the career.

"We are looking to come on par with other positions in the private sector and other areas of Government," added Mr. Wolffe.

"We are looking for parity, which we don't have at the moment."

The union boss said he understood that Government was still interviewing to fill a few vacancies in the public schools which were not filled in time for the start of the new term.

He said, at the moment, the positions were being filled by substitute teachers. Mr. Wolffe said while that was not a big problem in the short-term, if left for any length of time it could become more of a serious issue. The union leader said it could mean that substitute teachers are left filling in for long periods of time in subjects where they were not particularly qualified and he said they did not get the same kind of preparation time as full-time teachers.

He said: "We need to get these vacancies filled as soon as possible."