Some teachers in the Ministry of Education’s Fast Track Initiative Literacy Pro-gramme are complaining about non payment of their monthly stipend, but National Coordinator of the programme, Murphy Greenidge said he instructed that payment for some teachers be withheld as they have failed to submit monthly progress reports.
However, the teachers this newspaper spoke to said they do not fall into the category of teachers who have not submitted their monthly reports as they have been doing this on time.
The teachers, all of whom are based in Georgetown, said they have not been paid since February. They said after numerous enquiries they were told that because they signed a new contract that month their names have not been submitted to the finance department of the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD) through which the initiative is being implemented.
“We were told that our names have not been submitted by personnel to finance so they are not back on the payroll list at finance,” one teacher told this newspaper.
Contacted by this newspaper last Friday, Greenidge said some teachers have been a “bit tardy” in the submission of their reports and he had no alternative but to withhold their payments.
“What do you want me to do ma’am? They signed a contract in which it says they have to submit a monthly progress report and some have not been doing this so I had no other alternative,” the national coordinator said.
He said while he would not have informed the teachers personally about his decision he had transmitted same to the regional office.
Asked about the teachers’ claim that they were informed that their names were not yet back on the payroll, Greenidge said “To my mind they are all on the payroll.”
The national coordinator explained that the teachers would receive payment as soon as they submitted their reports adding that it was a very “painful decision I had to make.”
But the teachers had rejected the allegation by Greenidge and revealed that they have been in personal contact with the coordinator and he never informed them about not submitting reports.
“But we are not in that category I also submitted my reports. And even if that was so should they not dismiss us? Why keep us on the job and always calling to ensure that we are at work?” one teacher said.
The stipend paid to the teachers, who work only a few hours on specified days, is $30,000 and while it may seem meagre to some, the teachers said they work for the money and it does help them to offset expenses.
The programme was implemented in 2008 and while some teachers work in the school system others also work with adults as it is hoped that 14,500 persons — both adults and children – will become literate through the programme. The aim of the initiative is to achieve 100% literacy in the 2 to 35-year age group.
The minister launched the programme in April 2008 and $115 million was expended in training nearly 300 literacy teachers and to set up centres in most regions.
In Georgetown, 16 centres were established by 31 literacy educators targeting 465 students and 15 adults. It was noted that the beneficiaries are responding well to the programme.
Eleven NGOs dispatched 51 literacy volunteers to 30 centres countrywide to train 315 students and 435 adults. The prgramme was inspired by the success of large-scale literacy initiatives in several other countries including India.
