Govt cannot afford to pay teachers more

Last Updated on Thursday, 8 February 2024, 19:12 by Denis Chabrol

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday signaled that government could not afford to pay teachers higher salaries now as planners needed to ensure that government’s salary bill was sustainable.

“Your revenue has to sustain it in a long-term way to be sustainable and countries manage for sustainability,” he told a news conference. “A wage policy has to grow in accordance with affordability,” he added.

Coming against the backdrop of a now four-day old strike by hundreds of teachers to force the government to the bargaining table, he urged that the overall working conditions be taken into consideration rather than only salaries. “Not everything has to be about wages. It can be about training of teachers. It can be about scholarships for teachers. It should be about housing for teachers,” he said. Teachers, as part of society, also benefit from house-lots, improved roads and eventually better electricity.

Mr Jagdeo, a former Finance Minister, explained that GY$300 billion of oil money has been pumped into the 2024 National Budget along with GY$800 billion from locally generated revenues and GY$400 billion from non-oil revenues. Of those amounts, GY$135 billion was allocated to education and GY$130 billion to health. “Just over 20 percent of the budget is financed from the oil money,” he said.

He said wages and pensions account for 50 percent of the oil revenues.

He disagreed with Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton’s recommendation earlier Thursday that more than GY$20 billion could be redirected to wages and salaries. Mr Jagdeo did not deal with Mr Norton’s entire list of budgetary allocations, but said cash for print and non-print is for textbook; fuel and lubricants is for drainage and irrigation, and dietary is for school feeding.

No mention was made of Mr Norton’s recommendation that GY$38 million of the GY$504 million for refreshments; GY$486 million from GY$1.7 billion for national and other events; GY$8 billion from GY$20 billion for miscellaneous; and GY$2 billion from GY$7 billion for electricity related expenses be used for wages and salaries.

Asked why government was not considering increased prices, the Vice President said that was also happening in other Caribbean countries but Guyana’s “wage increase has outstripped every Caribbean country” for the skilled category. In fact , some of our wages are competitive at et the upper end with what people are getting paid in that region,” he said.