The Teaching Service Commission (TSC) says that 659 junior teachers were appointed in 2012 and 315 senior teachers promoted.
In a release yesterday, the TSC also said that in 2012, 177 teachers left the service. Of these, 39 teachers resigned while 134 left their employment without giving the requisite notice, and were dismissed. Four were dismissed following the disciplinary committee’s investigations.
According to the release, the disciplinary committee handled 34 complaints about the behaviour of teachers who broke the code of conduct and conducted themselves improperly. Some were found guilty of sexual misdemeanours including touching/fondling of students, child abuse specifically emotional abuse, vulgar/inappropriate behaviour in school, and inappropriate relationships with students.
The Commission noted that pornography surfaced among teachers which elicited a zero tolerance approach from the commission. Some were interdicted from duty and in extreme cases were dismissed.
The Commission said that every year a large number of teachers attend the University of Guyana to improve their knowledge and upgrade their status, however a number of them do not apply for release to attend UG as is required by the Ministry of Education.
In some cases classes in schools are left unattended which forces the Ministry to take corrective action; sometimes resulting in teachers being disciplined by the TSC for neglect of duty or irregularity.
The release said that in 2012, the TSC continued its constitutional mandate to appoint, promote and discipline teachers. It appointed 659 junior teachers, promoted 315 senior teachers, disciplined 34 teachers and dismissed 138.
The Commission received 1,016 applications from secondary school graduates for employment at the junior level. Only 347 of them were employed. There were many applicants with ten or more CSEC or CXC passes with grades I to IV but had lower than grade III in English Language and /Mathematics. A pass of grade III and higher in English Language and Mathematics is compulsory for appointment as a Temporary Qualified Master/ Mistress.
Some 226 trained class I grade I teachers and 86 class III from the pre-service programme at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) were added to the list of junior teachers. The in-service programme from CPCE produced 245 trained class I grade I and 30 class III teachers who were appointed to schools, but were already counted as teachers within the system.
The commission said that in the case of junior appointments, some vacancies were unfilled because of the following reasons: lack of eligible applicant in specific technical fields living within or in close proximity to the schools; applicants who have passes in technical fields but are deficient in English Language and to a lesser extent Mathematics; unavailability of housing in some riverain areas and persons finding great difficult in travelling long distances to reach some schools.
The senior promotion vacancy notice 2012, published at the request of the Ministry of Education, and accompanied by the ‘criteria for promotion 2012’ attracted 658 applicants; but only 315 senior promotions were made.
During 2012, the commission visited a number of Regions and met with regional officials and education staff. They also met with staff of some schools and clusters of teachers to listen to concerns and to offer advice where necessary.
The commission is now starting the processing of applications for senior promotions in 2013.
