The Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) is irate over its exclusion from interviews being conducted by the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) for entrance into the Associate Degree programme and is calling on the Minister of Education to have them stopped immediately.
At a snap news briefing yesterday morning, GTU President Colin Bynoe said the union contacted Education Minister Shaik Baksh on the issue and he had promised to get back to them in 30 minutes. It was failing this that the GTU Executive Committee decided to ventilate the matter in the press, he added.
Bynoe said they had also contacted the CPCE Board Chairman Olato Sam and were given a “confusing” response about the interviews being part of the admissions process. According to Bynoe, they were told that the issue was not “important” and that was why the GTU was not included. He stated that the union had been invited to the first set of interviews for the new programme but not for those conducted on Tuesday and yesterday. “We are demanding that the Minister of Education have the Board of CPCE discontinue those interviews until a formal request or invitation has been given to the Guyana Teachers Union so we can be a part of this process,” he said. He also called on the minister to convene an urgent meeting between the GTU and CPCE to have the matter sorted out.
The Associate Degree is a new programme, he pointed out, while adding that the GTU had to be a part of the process if they wanted it done “effectively and properly.” He stated that the union wanted to ensure that teachers were properly represented throughout the process because they paid their dues for representation. However, when contacted, Sam told Stabroek News that the interviews were part of CPCE’s admissions process to see whether applicants had the required qualifications and it did not necessitate the inclusion of the union. “It’s an internal qualification process that every educational institution has.
There is no rule that says the GTU has to be part of that because it’s an internal process,” he stated.
He noted that the GTU has a role on the CPCE Board and he had told the union that if it wanted to be part of the current interview process, a request would have to be submitted for consideration.
In a brief interview with this newspaper, Baksh said that he was aware of the issue and that it was one for the college’s Board to deal with. “They have made some changes to the interview process. I know that the GTU president is a member of the Board and all of these things will have to go to the Board for ratification.”
Meanwhile, the GTU’s Immediate Past President Colwyn King said that failure to have this matter sorted out would represent a break in the partnership they had developed over the years with education officials. However, the GTU executive members were careful in pointing out that they were not threatening industrial action.
