The State has been ordered to pay $80,000 in compensation to a secondary school teacher who was discriminated against by being placed in a school to serve as head of department.
High Court Judge Betsy-Ann Lambert-Peterson ordered the compensation for Ravindra Ramnanan last week, after upholding his constitutional case against the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) and the Office of the Attorney General in early March.
In 2022, Ramnanan applied for the promotion. He was interviewed and placed on a merit list. As part of the application process, Ramnanan was asked to identify four schools in which he preferred to be placed, provided that there were vacancies.
Concerned that there might not be vacancies at the schools he initially identified, Ramnanan supplied the commission with a supplemental list of schools that he could be considered for. With effect from April 19, 2022, he was assigned to Siparia East Secondary School, the ninth-choice school he identified. Although the commission did not publish the merit list, it was subsequently disclosed to Ramnanan after he made a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The list revealed that Ramnanan was ranked 18th, and a colleague, who was ranked 44th, was promoted to Marabella North Secondary School, which was his fourth choice.
After pointing out the discrepancy to the commission, Ramnanan was reassigned to Marabella North Secondary School. Ramnanan filed the lawsuit after he learned that positions at his top three choices—San Fernando East Secondary School, Pleasantville Secondary School, and San Fernando Central Secondary School—were not filled and the TSC refused to reassign him to one of them.
On March 1, Justice Lambert-Peterson upheld his case as she ruled that his constitutional right to equality of treatment from a public authority was breached by the commission.
As part of her judgment, Justice Lambert-Peterson quashed the decision of the commission to refuse to vary its decision to assign Ramnanan to Marabella North Secondary School.
The judge also ordered that Ramnanan be retroactively promoted to the position at Pleasantville Secondary School. In her recent decision, Justice Lambert-Peterson noted that although her previous orders largely vindicated the breach of Ramnanan’s constitutional right, he was entitled to compensation for such.
Ramnanan was represented by Navindra Ramnanan and Ricky Pandohee. The State was represented by Stefan Jaikaran, Rachael Jacob, Melissa Papoonsingh, and Krystyn Lewis. — Derek Achong