Teachers should evaluate education officers- Minister of Education, GTU President

Last Updated on Monday, 24 January 2022, 11:24 by Denis Chabrol

The Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand and the President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Mark Lyte on Monday – International Education Day- said that teachers should be allowed to evaluate the performance of education officers.

Appearing on News-Talk Radio Guyana- Demerara Waves Online News, Ms. Manickchand was asked about the prospects of education officers being anonymously evaluated against the background of plans to license teachers. “It shouldn’t have to be anonymous. That is part of growth. If you begin with anonymous, then you should certainly aim to phase that out after a while and there should be no hesitation in holding each other accountable,” she said.

Ms. Manickchand, remarking that the education officers emerge from the school system as the better teachers, cited the need for them to be premiere functionaries. “Our education officers must be the best of the best and so we should not hesitate in demanding of service providers, whether it be teachers, education officers or public servants across the counter, the very best we have to offer and demanding that their skills be improved,” the Education Minister added.   She vowed that steps would be taken against the education service providers who fall short in measurement and evaluation of their performances. “Measures must be taken to make sure what their output was intended we get or else it is our children and our nation that will suffer,” he said. You can listen to  the full interview here

The GTU President, for his part, said that with the licensing of teachers should come accountability of education officers. “Obviously, those who supervise them (teachers)  then you have to get a higher standard for those persons and there is an absence of that. We have some very good education officers and we have some very bad ones and that does not augur well for the system if they are to supervise our teachers and so we would very much like to see a system put in place whereby teachers can play a role in assessing their performances,” he said.  Mr. Lyte said the GTU would be making strong representation to the Education Ministry to put an evaluation system in place for education officers because “we have education officers who do all manner of things within the system and because there is no standard to which they are held, they get off with it and so putting an appraisal system in place will keep them in-check and allow  them to provide that kind of professional support to the education system.” You can  watch  to the full interview here.