Urgent GTU-MoE meeting needed on teachers’ appointments – McDonald

Last Updated on Saturday, 17 January 2026, 0:26 by Writer

The Ministry of Education needs to meet urgently with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) to discuss long-overdue and future appointment of teachers and a compensation package for teachers who retired since the last appointments and were possibly eligible for promotions, union President Coretta McDonald said on Friday.

Speaking at an opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) press conference, the educator said that now the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) has been re-appointed, the union had already requested a meeting to discuss appointments.

Ahead of such a meeting, she said the union believed that there is a solution. “The GTU’s position is at this time that we should have at least two promotions for 2026, which would compensate for the teachers who were not promoted over the last three years,” she said.

She confirmed that that approach would assist with the backdating of appointments and having more persons appointed.

The trade unionist said TSC – the constitutionally empowered body to appoint, discipline and fire teachers – would not act until the GTU and the ministry “meet, look at the vacancy list, ensure that it’s seamless.”

She stressed the importance of the two sides meeting to discuss whether there would be changes to the criteria for promotion, have that signed off and dispatched to the TSC.

A senior education ministry official did not immediately respond to queries by Demerara Waves Online News.

The GTU President feared that the longer the ministry delayed the meeting with the GTU, “our teachers are going to be in jeopardy again and many more teachers will retire, not being able to attain positions that they longed for.”

Ms McDonald suggested that because she and other executive members of the union are elected opposition representatives in parliament and at the regional level appeared to be a major stumbling block to the education ministry being reluctant to meet discuss teachers’ welfare. “What the ministry is seeing is personality, which we find very, very unprofessional. They’re dealing with who is not a representative, who is a representative here, who is a member of parliament, who is sitting at the regional level, representing a political party,” she said.

Ms McDonald said the Ministry of Education had been requesting meetings with the union only on select matters that concern the administration. She said repeated efforts to secure talks on a future collective bargaining agreement have been unsuccessful.

On the issue of a compensation package to already retired teachers who could have likely been promoted if they were still on the job, the teachers’ union president said the GTU’s request to President Irfaan Ali for a meeting has not received a favourable response.