What is the Education Service coming to?

Dear Editor,

In SN of June 22 and KN of June 24, I note two versions of a letter by Mr Leon Suseran, “Graduate Senior Assistant Master, Vrymans Erven High School”. Both letters have a number of linguistic infelicities that I shall ignore, for the present.

Mr Suseran’s major complaint seems to be that the Guyana Teachers’ Union, by its action in the High Court against the Teaching Service Commission, has caused dozens of teachers – including himself ‒ to be unable to take up appointments for which they were identified on the preliminary list published by the TSC in 2015. Mr Suseran’s name, it appears, was on the list, and he was to have been appointed Graduate Head of the Department of English in a Secondary School.

I note, too, the response in KN of June 24 from Mr Mark Lyte, President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, in which he claimed that Mr Suseran was not eligible to apply for that post, and that Mr Suseran’s proposed appointment was one of those that breached the eligibility criteria published by the TSC. If Mr Suseran’s qualifications are, indeed, a Trained Teacher’s Certificate with major in English plus a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Studies, then I here assert that under the published criteria that I have looked up on the TSC website, Mr Suseran is not eligible for consideration for appointment as Head of the Department of English in a Secondary School. The GTU President should, however, have quoted the rule, with greater specificity and particularity. At the same time, the rule governing eligibility for appointment as a Senior Master/Mistress in a Secondary School should have been quoted.

In two letters in SN in June, 2011, after the TSC published its Preliminary Appointment Notice 2011, I commented on the proposed promotions in the straight administrative stream and in respect of the specialist position of Head of Department. I provided statistics and suggested links among unfilled senior vacancies, teacher migration and the Guyana pay scales.

I also had cause to say then: “Traditionally, the Head of Department is the specialist on whom the school depends for organizing the teaching of that specialist subject, and who is expected to try to keep abreast of developments in the teaching of that subject so that the delivery of education in that subject area is enhanced”. That is why, traditionally, the post requires that the applicant be a university graduate in the specific subject area.

I have also looked at the Application Form, 2015 on the TSC website and I have found that, as usual, there should have been a comment on Mr Suseran’s eligibility by Mr Suseran’s Headmaster/Headmistress, by his Level Education Officer, by his Regional Education Officer, by the relevant Senior Officer at the Ministry of Education itself, and, of course, by the Teaching Service Commissioner who dealt with Mr Suseran’s application. Did none of these persons realize that Mr Suseran was not eligible to apply for a post as Head of the Department of English in a Secondary School, but only for Head of Department, Social Studies and for Senior Master?