The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) is calling on the David Granger administration to show it has the best interest of teachers at heart by respecting agreements made for their benefit under the previous administration.
In an interview with Stabroek New yesterday, GTU General Secretary Coretta McDonald explained that while several of these issues have existed since 2007, teachers will ultimately be affected if they are not dealt with in a timely matter.
The issues span the education and certification of teachers as well as their remuneration and promotion.
The most pressing issue is the failure of the government to pay the tuition fees of those teachers who have been granted scholarships by the government to pursue studies at the University of Guyana (UG). Those teachers are presently facing embarrassment and stress, McDonald said.
“Tuition fees have not been paid for them, so lots of threats are being given to them by the UG administration. They are being told that, ‘Well, exams are on the 30th and if your fees are not paid then you will not be allowed to write the exam. If your fees are not paid then you can’t complete your registration and you can’t use the library.’ I don’t understand why we are always taking this long, long time to have payment being made for teachers so that teachers are not put under pressure when they are attending classes,” she noted.
She explained that every year 30 teachers are selected for scholarships to pursue studies at UG. The process which identifies the student teachers begins in July and ends by mid-August, so that both the Ministry of Education and Public Service Department have enough time to prepare the invoice and money that needs to be paid. In fact, since the number of students is set, there should be no problem with having the money available, yet every year there are problems with the payment of fees, not just for first-year students but for the second, third and final year students as well, McDonald said.
The union is also worried about issues arising with the certification of those teachers who have chosen to pursue the Associate Degree in Education (ADE).
In 2010, the government began offering teachers the opportunity to complete an ADE. Teachers who choose to pursue this programme are able to achieve the status of trained graduate in four years of study; two years at the Cyril Potter of Education (CPCE) and two years at the UG. Previously, it took seven years; three at CPCE and four at UG to achieve this qualification.
According to McDonald, the issue that arises is that the implementation of the programme deviates from the expectation.
“Teachers and GTU assumed that this would have been pursued over four consecutive years. Instead, teachers are told that they must wait their turn,” McDonald said.
She further explained that “a teacher in the ADE programme who leaves CPCE is expecting to enroll in UG the next academic year. However, if they are placed in a school where ten teachers have already applied to be granted time to attend UG, they have to wait until those ten have completed their studies before they are granted leave to attend.”
The union would like to know how soon these teachers will be certified and how the education system will deal with the influx of ADE teachers.
“Unless you are doing Math or Science where the priority line is, all other teachers have to wait. While you wait you have no real certification. Right now, ADE teachers are given an Assistant Master/Mistress status, which is the status and salary range of a trained teacher but you are not a trained. The trained teacher’s programme takes three years. There is no status for you,” McDonald said.
According to McDonald, the union had identified these issues before the programme was implemented to no avail.
“We posited that this programme be phased in while the trained teacher’s certificate was phased out. If we take a small ADE influx every year, say 25 teachers, then the programme can slowly be developed and we wouldn’t have this problem,” she said.
Teachers who are qualified and have been working in the system for several years are also facing several challenges.
In May of this year the GTU called for teachers to work to rule in protest against the previous administration’s failure to implement the debunching promised in the most recent multi-year wage agreement.
According to the 2011 to 2015 agreement between the Ministry and the GTU, “an equivalent of approximately one per cent of the teachers’ wage bill will be used to implement the debunching exercise by the end of May, 2011.” This condition has not been met.
Teachers are presently paid on a scale constituted using academic qualifications. This means that a trained teacher with five years of experience is paid the same salary as a teacher who has recently graduated CPCE; a senior mistress with over 10 years’ experience at her post in some cases may be taking home the same money as someone she once taught. A debunching of the salary scale would see teachers being paid different salaries commensurate with their years of experience.
This exercise was called off soon after the general elections in an effort to allow the new government to address the issue. However, six months later the union is crying foul once again.
McDonald explained that the discussion on debunching was started at the Ministry of Education. “The PS (Permanent Secretary) was a part of all these discussions. After we arrived at the sums that have to be paid out, the PS then said to us, ‘Well, of course, I don’t have money to pay you, so we have to send this to finance.’ Finance decided that they will not be able to honour that, so it will have to go to Cabinet to have a Cabinet decision. We would’ve spoken to Mr Harmon [Minister of State] two months ago and he said that it will have to go to Cabinet. Yet, yesterday (Monday), this is what I got,” McDonald said as she displayed a letter from the Ministry of Presidency. The letter directed the GTU to speak to the Ministry of Education to have the matter of debunching addressed.
“Don’t leave us hanging,” McDonald demanded of the government. “We are professionals and if we are going to engage you on an issue then engage us properly and in good faith.”
The union is most worried because the agreement which guarantees them this provision comes to an end this year.
“We are taking note of the fact that the agreement comes to an end in December this year. What happens next year when we approach them on this issue? They might say that you don’t have an agreement in place. Since we still have the agreement in place, we are addressing the issues. From 2007 to 2015 has been a pretty, pretty long time. We are hoping that we don’t have to return to industrial action,” McDonald noted.
She stressed that the union is hoping that the government understands that its interest is that of the teachers and honouring agreements that have been signed. “When in opposition they assisted us to fight this issue, now persons in the government seem not to be aware of what the issue is,” she lamented.
