Cutting the Ministry of Education's budget by $6 million is not the right way forward, according to the Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU).

BPSU general secretary Ed Ball Jr. said he thought the Ministry would have been the last to have a budget decrease.

He said: "It's very disheartening to learn that the Ministry of Education's budget has been cut by $6 million in light of the fact that there's heightened emphasis on education.

"With the new Cambridge curriculum programme, I would have thought that Education's budget would have been the last to be cut."

The Cambridge International Curriculum is the new curriculum for the public education system and will be fully implemented in September.

Mr. Ball continued: "It's the future workers of the Country. It doesn't bode well for a Country who knows there's a problem and now they're trying to get the workers to cut their hours either to get them through this year's budget or for next year."

He explained that board of governors at CedarBridge Academy are trying to get staff to reduce their hours by up to five hours a week. The Ministry negotiates with the BPSU on items including teacher's salaries and work hours.

"The board is working within the mandates that have been given to them. It's not that they want to do it but it's not up to them," he said.

"Again it just makes us wonder where is the thinking in terms of do you invest in our people meaning our young people and cut other budgets? Let's remember that governments all over the world have to cut and we can't be selective in how we do it.

"We say that from the Minister's remarks, I just think that it's very unfortunate. We have been working with teachers with reductions of work weeks, etc. They are also sharing with us their spreadsheets. We know that they're cutting as much as they can. The question is whether the Government is doing all they can."

Meanwhile, Education Minister El James said his Ministry will be negotiating this year with the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) and the Association of School Principals (ASP). Negotiations have also taken place between the Ministry and the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU).

He said: "The department's human resources section has continued over the past academic year to fulfil Government's obligation under the Employment Act and to ensure full compliance with the Employment Act for its entire staff.

"In order to address concerns early, a representative from the human resource section has engaged in scheduled, joint consecutive council meetings with all of the unions over this academic year. These meeting are ongoing."

This newspaper understands the negotiations are not related to salaries. Mr. James added that the human resources team in his Ministry work with the trade unions to ensure a "positive working relationship for all employees within the Education Department".

Human Resources received an increase of $353,000 for the year. The Minister said the increase was due to another manager being moved from another cost centre, $200,00 for long service awards and an additional $20,000 for overseas recruitment fees.

The department handles recruitment, industrial and employee relations, employment legislation, employee administration, and training and development.