GTU, President differ on improving teachers conditions; recognition of service

Last Updated on Wednesday, 5 October 2022, 8:14 by Denis Chabrol

The Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and President Irfaan Ali on Wednesday- World Teachers Day- gave different accounts of the professional development and working conditions of teachers.

The union said teachers were not being recognised and paid sufficiently  for their hard work and dedication prompting many of them to proceed on early retirement. “Respect our rights by making our lives less burdensome through providing better facilities and equipment, better salaries, treating us professionally, honouring agreements signed, consulting us before deciding on policies etc;” the union said in a statement. The union noted that many teachers opt to go overseas because of no recognition of their hard work through ceremonies for their contributions. Some teachers retire as early as 50 years old instead of 55 but they lose their benefits.

World Teachers Day 2022 is being observed under the theme of “Teachers at the Heart of Education Recovery”.

GTU President Mark Lyte castigated the government for some of the poorest working c0nditions with the lowest salaries compared to their Caribbean colleagues, but he praised the educators for nevertheless being able to “mould our students to outperform our Caribbean counterparts.”

But President Ali in an early Wednesday morning Facebook Live post congratulated teachers for continuing to work hard in building a system that delivers the best possible results for Guyana and its students “I want to take this opportunity to congratulate all our teachers across our country for their continued hard work, their commitment, their dedication and their own personal upliftment as we as a government work closely with them and with the sector to ensure  we give them the right environment, to ensure we give them the tools, that will help them, that will aid their transformation s they can be in a better position to be nimble, to be flexible to adapt to this new environment in which teachers must operate,” he said.

Dr Ali did not announce any salary increases or cash grants to teachers, but said he has instructed that new teachers earn the current year’s salary instead of the previous year which would see more than 1,300 teachers across Guyana benefitting. “That is another major achievement in supporting teachers, supporting their transformation, supporting their personal welfare, supporting their well-being,” he said.

He said improving the conditions of teachers is not only about salary increases but providing a better working environment including the materials and tools to deliver education in a modern environment, the provision of transportation, better access to water, and electricity.

He announced that clerical staff would soon be employed at schools to support teachers in administrative duties so “the burden of record keeping is removed from teachers and they have more time to work in the classroom and to work in the learning environment.” He said Guidance and Counselling Officers were being deployed to 86 secondary schools to address the challenge and threat of “hostility in schools”. The President also announced that instructions were this week issued to clear the backlog in providing the permanent Teachers Certificates to Cyril Potter College of Education graduates up to 2016. The Ministry of Education has informed teachers who have completed their training after 2016 to follow the normal process to obtain their permanent trained teachers certificates.

Recalling that he had seen his parents, now retired teachers, spending long hours preparing notes of lessons and themselves to deliver the content to students, he stressed that government was making every effort to provide the best possible opportunities such as continuing education through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning through which almost 2,150 teachers are studying. “This is an opportunity that has never existed. Over the last two years, we have been able to deliver this to teachers and I am very pleased that teachers are making good use of this opportunity,” he said.  He said over the last two years the quota system has been removed due to the use of technologies, resulting in more than 5,000 teachers now in training. He said 100 percent of Guyana’s teachers could be trained Online, perhaps a first for the Caribbean.

Instead of trainee teachers receiving an GY$11,000 stipend, he said over the last two years they have been placed on the payroll and are receiving GY$80,000 salaries.

He said the placement of sweeper-cleaners at schools on contract would also aid in creating an enabling environment for teachers to deliver better education.