Months after the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) signed a deal with the Ministry of Education (MoE), 300 senior teachers and education administrators from across the country will be able to access duty-free concessions for vehicles.
Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, in making the announcement yesterday, disclosed that to qualify, they all must be members of the GTU for a period of at least three years and must have at least three years of service remaining. The teachers must also be the heads, deputy heads and principals of Grade A and B schools, head masters and mistresses of Grade C, D and E schools, and senior masters. Additionally, all senior masters and mistresses and Heads of Departments and Lecturers 11 of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and technical schools will become eligible for the concessions after serving six consecutive years in the same position.
Speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing, he said that Cabinet, at a recent meeting, consented to the granting of the concessions which forms part of an agreement between the MoE and the GTU for the period 2016-2018. A total of 100 concessions was allocated for distribution each year for that period.
Harmon said that the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority had requested Cabinet’s consent for the approval of the concessions, which cater for motor vehicles up to 1800 cc engine capacity, outboard engines of up to 75 horsepower for those in the riverine areas, and All-Terrain Vehicles for persons in the hinterland.
Giving a breakdown by region, Harmon said that Region One will get one; Region Two, 24; Region Three, 58; Region Four, 41; Region Five, 18; Region Six, 48; Region Seven, seven; Region Eight, two; Region Nine, three; Region Ten, 11. Additionally, 78 teachers in Georgetown will receive concessions while nine from CPCE and the Government Technical Institute will be granted concessions.
In granting the approval, he said, Cabinet noted the need to provide “favourable conditions” of work and remuneration within the education sector and, as such, affirmed government’s commitment to continue to work with the GTU to improve the conditions of service for teachers and educators.
The duty-free vehicle concessions and 20 new scholarships to study Science and Technical Education at the University of Guyana were among the few concrete non-salary benefits that the GTU was able to secure in the agreement signed with the Education Ministry in October last year.
The agreement was reached after three years of contentious negotiations that saw nine days of strike action. The ministry and the union also agreed to pay teachers tiered increases over the period January 2016 to December 2018.
