Dear Editor,
A perusal of the National Budget 2010 will reveal that normally in addition to the Special Grade, there are nineteen sets of salary grades for teachers in the national education system. ‘Normally’ because several grades consist of ‘sub grades’ effectively making a total of 28 actual salary grades.
A further curiosity is the occurrence of established scales for ‘Temporary Masters’, and that there is a curious provision for such ‘Temporary’ incumbencies to extend up to ten years or more – a remarkable arrangement which appears to contradict the published anxieties surrounding the retention of teachers in the extant system.
Since the Salary Scales were announced in the 2010 National Budget earlier in the year, increases have been implemented by the Teaching Service Commission. In the process five ‘Scales’ have been converted into ‘Fixed’ salaries. These include the Special Grade – where the increase is approximately 8.0%. The other four are in fact components of an assigned Grade: TS1 (a) – (d), where the increases average approximately 7.5%.
Other increases (from Grade TS 19 to Grade TS 2) range from as low as 1.8% to as high as 13% – with an overall average of just over 4%.
Information shows that there are at least nine substantive categories of teachers, including the following:
1. Teacher Aide
2. Acting Teacher
3. Pupil Teacher
4. Temporary Unqualified Master
5. Temporary Qualified Master
6. Trained Teacher
7. Non-Graduate
8. Untrained Graduate
9. Trained Graduate
to which are added further specific sub-categorisations, related to:
i) promotions, and
ii) the size of the school population to which assigned
This then is the intricately tiered structure into which the beneficiaries of the newly established Associate Degree at University of Guyana will be inserted in order to be appropriately compensated, raising the possibility of identification of a new category of ‘teacher’ i.e. Associate Graduate.
In the existing confused system of appointments it is conceivable that these ‘Associate Graduates’ may enter the system under the ‘Temporary’ banner, so that their performance can be measured for appointment to ‘permanent’ employment status.
It will also be of interest whether or not the ‘Associate’ Graduate is categorised as ‘Non-Graduate’.
The complications, so far as compensation is concerned, arise out of the abnormalities of the current Teaching Service Commission’s Job/Salaries Structure. Broadly, it is possible for salaries of ‘Temporary’ (qualified) appointees to range from Grades beginning at TS2 (c) to TS3 – a Senior Clerk in the Public Service is at scale GS5 (of loosely comparative value).
‘Non-Graduate’ categories of teachers begin at Grade TS4 and can move right through to Grade TS13 depending on the specific school rating.
There is the interesting distinction made between an ‘Untrained Graduate Master’ (at Grades TS6 to TS9) and other ‘Trained’ Graduates, who (again depending on school postings) can begin at the lowest Graduate Scale Grade of TS7 and move as high as to TS19. The last Grade usually applies to the position of Principals.
But there needs to be some quick appreciation of the rating of schools. Schools are rated from A – E, A being the highest, applicable similarly to Nursery, Primary and Secondary (and some technical) institutions.
The rating is directly related to defined student populations, which is so ‘arranged’ that it is possible for the Head of Nursery School to be similarly graded as the Head of Grade A Primary School of three times the student population of the former; or the comparable Head of Secondary School of at least twice the population of the first mentioned.
In other words the system of numerical rating results in equating a Grade B Primary School with a Grade A Secondary School.
Colleague non-educators must wonder, simplistically perhaps, whether and how the respective curriculum content is measured to influence rating.
On the whole, the system of rating schools in the local education system, can at best be described as simplistic, suggesting for example, that the nature of responsibility of a School Head is generally measured by school population. This results in a major contradiction wherein occurs a substantive differential between basic remuneration paid to a ‘Graduate Head’ and that paid to a ‘Non-Graduate Head’ in relation to the same or similarly rated school. One is left to fathom the reasoning which determines a ‘Non-Graduate’ as capable of managing the same size school as a ‘Graduate’, but at a level of payment as much as seven (7) grades below that of the latter. The efficacy of this engagement is uncertain and invites further investigation as to whether it in fact serves as an incentive for persons to become ‘graduates’; or a disincentive in the form of non-recognition of actual delivery performance.
This convoluted system of rewarding teachers who at any level operate in a target-oriented environment, and are expected, both by their employers and client parents, to consistently achieve those targets (in the face of known constraints); as well as satisfy measurable performance criteria, yields (with minimal exception) an average annual salary increase of less than five percent.
This treatment significantly contrasts with the recent pattern of awards of annual across-the-board increases, averaging 5%, to their public service counterparts of every level, unrelated of performance.
This comparison/contrast which hitherto appears to have been overlooked, nevertheless begs for serious remedial attention, particularly in the context of retaining those skilled personnel who are expected to lay the foundation for Guyana’s human resources development.
Incidentally the width of the TSC Scales range from a minimum of 4.8% to a maximum of 12.9% with an average of 8.6% over 24 effective scales, compared to the Public Service lowest scale of GS1i[i] of a 14% bandwidth.
Yours faithfully,
E B John
