The Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) is ready to negotiate for salary increases its President Mark Lyte said after he was reelected for another term on Saturday.
Lyte vowed to fight for the teachers’ best interests. “…I want to first thank the teachers for placing their confidence in me once again and putting me at the helm,” he said adding that being elected again was testimony of the work he has done in the past two years, which has won the confidence of the teachers.
“I have two more years again and I will be able to accomplish a lot more having been able to craft a new proposal to give teachers a new perspective about where we want to lead them and the plans we have for their future,” he added, stating that proposal focuses on salary increases, non-salary benefits, duty-free concessions in several categories and special incentives for teachers who perform well.
The GTU had proposed a substantial increase for teachers to the Ministry of Education. If granted, a trained non-graduate teacher, who currently earns $84,921 per month, would see a rise in salary to $581,815 a month by 2020. Similarly, an untrained graduate would be earning $804,103 a month, while a trained graduate, who now earns $131,195, would be paid $898,849 a month. All of these represent a cumulative increase of 585% over the salaries currently being earned.
According to the proposal for the years 2016-2020, which has been seen by Stabroek News, the union is asking for a 40% increase in 2016, a 45% increase in 2017, 50% in 2018, 50% in 2019 and 50% in 2020.
Lyte said the GTU is calling for dialogue with the minister, who would have already had a discussion with cabinet. He said that while GTU would have proposed the 40% increase, it is ready to negotiate but will not accept a 5% or 10% increase. He said the union also hopes that talks/negotiations could commence before the end of April.
Lyte said the substantial increase was proposed because teachers are not adequately compensated for all they have and had to do. “We feel that the salary is not compatible with the … years of training they have to undergo to become a graduate teacher,” he said, adding that it was also recognized that there is a loss of teachers because of the low payment. “We recognise that we are losing teachers to greener pastures where more is being offered,” he said.
Lyte also pointed to the dearth of male teachers in the country and said that the salary increase would attract more men, which is vital to maintaining discipline in the school environment. “One must not forget we are losing male teachers. In some schools we have no males and in others it is a very small percentage,” Lyte said, stating that the feedback from the males show that they are deterred from entering the teaching profession because it does not “economically attract” them. Lyte explained that an increase will also address the extra-lessons syndrome that has preventing many teachers from putting their entire focus into the profession. “For the last 10 years teachers have to go off for lessons in order to make up for what they are not earning and some even have to do other jobs to compensate: like selling in the market, driving hire cars and even selling things like plantain chips,” he said, stating that if they are not paid well then they are forced to take up a second job. “I am hoping that good sense will prevail and will reduce the prevalence of teachers going into secondary professions and can dedicate more time into the profession,” he added.
“Basically there is a lot in store for teachers… We want to train teachers to respond better within the learning environment,” he said.
