Dear Editor,
For those who may not grasp the significance of the newly refurbished Rosignol School being declared an ‘A’ list school (SN, November 14) the information following may provide some understanding of the rating.
The school grading system of the Teaching Service Commission is based on student population, as shown in Table 1 below.
To place the situation in wider the context, Table 2 below should be helpful.
P – Primary
S – Secondary
To be noted are the disparities in salary grades between ‘Graduate’ and ‘Non-Graduate’ categories of schools.
The differentiation raises a contradiction to a reasoning that determines a ‘Non-Graduate’ Head, for example, as being as capable of managing the same size school as his or her ‘Graduate’ counterpart, and presumably of satisfying the same performance criteria – while at the same time being rewarded with a level of payment as much as seven grades below that of the latter.
Compounding these inequalities, are those that can be further identified in Table 3 which follows. It portrays the comparative salary levels of teachers with those of three selected agencies: i) Guyana Fire Service; ii) Guyana Prison Service; and iii) the General Register Office.
Careful study will reveal amongst other incongruities, that the salary of the Principal of Cyril Potter College earns a salary on grade described as ‘special’ – which relates to the value range of a Divisional Officer in the Guyana Fire Service.
From this perspective such an evaluation profoundly reflects the general affront to the teaching profession’s contribution to the society.
When one takes into consideration the latter’s responsibility to account continuously to stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education, students, parents, the community at large, including prospective employers, it is difficult for anyone to defend the parsimonious treatment dispensed to teachers as a whole.
