Teachers would not be released to take part in the national house-to-house registration exercise but they may be involved after school hours, acting Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Gail Teixeira says.
Teixeira, who is currently holding the brief in the absence of Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon, said at a post-Cabinet press briefing that of the 1,000 who had been short-listed and trained to conduct the exercise 600 were teachers and 200 were public servants.
Teixeira said that originally the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) had requested that the teachers be released from 1 pm. She said that the government could not allow this since this would also mean releasing teachers from rural and hinterland areas where teachers are in short supply.
Even in the towns the absence of teachers on an exercise, which would last from about six to nine months, she said, would have a negative impact on the learning/teaching situation.
She emphasised that the government was not against the teachers being involved but they would not be able to do so during regular school hours.
