Dear Editor,
The first reaction, however misleading, is the absence of any specific reference to Heads et al of Queen’s College, Bishops’ High School in the same context of the Cyril Potter College of Education – regarding the duty-free concessions to educators, as reported in SN of May 17.
The educators identified as eligible for concessions on say motor vehicles up to 1800cc engine capacity, outboard engines of up to 75 horsepower, include the following:
Heads, Deputy Heads and Principals of Grades A and B Schools
Heads of Grades C, D and E Schools, and Senior Masters
All Senior Masters/Mistresses and Heads of Department and Lecturers II of Cyril Potter College of Education, and Technical Schools (GTI, NATI, GITC, CSHE, LTI). (One suspects that the reporting in respect of the foregoing is somewhat confused.)
Whatever are the eligibilities, one is still left to wonder how many of the groupings can afford the maintenance of such concessions, based on salaries alone.
And while there is talk of ‘Heads’, there appears to be no differentiation between Graduate and Non-Graduate Heads.
For the benefit of readers, the following samples may well be the actual categories of teachers referred to:
Note that if a Graduate Head of 6th Form School is considered eligible, then this category would include:
Vice Principal, CPCE, NATI
Deputy Principal GTI, LTI
Administrator, GITC
Principal, CSHE
The above are in scale TS19 which with effect 2018.01.01, was $266,766-286,179.
Graduate Head Grade A
– TS18 – $252,405-271,805
Graduate Head Grade B
– TS17 – $236,861-256,266
Graduate Head Grade C
– TS16 – $221,341-240,741
Graduate Deputy Head Grade A
– TS15 – 213,576-229,111
Graduate Head Grade D
– TS14 – $205,806-232,407
Graduate Head Grade B Nursery
Non-Graduate Head Grade A
– TS13 – $198,035-213,575
Graduate Deputy Head Grade B
Graduate Head Grade E
– TS12 – $190,272-205,809
Graduate Head Grade C
Nursery
Graduate Head of Department
The salaries of the reported eligible positions keep reducing down to those of the lowest, as follows:
Non-Graduate Head of Department
– TS5A – $137,531-149,488
Non-Graduate Senior Master
Non-Graduate Head, Grade D Nursery
Hopefully, the above information indicates the range of teachers who would be able to afford the concession, certainly from the point of view of the banks.
A review of the salaries structure, even with any subsequent negotiated increases, still reveals how underpaid is this hardworking group, whose performance is monitored so much more closely than that of their counterpart public servants, unlike whom they must consistently show measurable outputs.
So the concessions would hardly be meaningful for some. The exercise finally would be but a chimera.
Yours faithfully,
E.B. John
