Dear Editor,
Please permit me space in your letter column to highlight the abnormalities myself and other college teachers’ face on a daily basis. Our lecturers are taking the E-Learning system as a hide and seek profession and we, the teachers, are facing the consequences. The Cyril Potter College of Education is a higher education institution, and its main campus is in Turkeyen with additional training sessions in Anna Regina. “It provides a coordinated and integrated approach for formal teacher training education in Guyana. To effectively and efficiently train teachers who can function in Nursery, Primary, and Secondary Schools throughout Guyana. To provide opportunities for teacher educators to be engaged in independent or collaborative research and professional development activities, and capacity building for para professionals.”
The Pre-service and In-service teachers are suffering due to the lack of performances of lecturers attached to the Region #2, Essequibo Centre. The lecturers are failing in their duties to arrange online sessions or meeting with teachers, who are present to be trained. If they do arrange a meeting, either by Google Meeting, Zoom or another platform, they hardly ever attend classes. And at the end of the term or semester, we have a final examination to write, whether we were lectured to or not, and are expected to achieve a 50% pass grade. Shouldn’t this be unacceptable to us as teachers? Moreover, it appears that our teachers don’t have a say no more, and we are expected to tolerate this behaviour from our dear lecturers. Our Department of Education is cognizant of this behaviour. Our In-service and Pre-service heads of the college sit with their hands folded and their feet ex on this matter. These lecturers are paid one of the highest salaries in the education sector, and yet they fail to perform according to expectations.
Approximately 60% of teachers attached to the Anna Regina Center are suffering; official figures are confirming what we all know, that the cost of living is now rising faster than it has for some time. And with information gathered from a survey conducted on college teachers across the Cinderella County, 65% of teachers do not even have internet service installed in their homes, while those with internet service have to experience unreliable services. Many teachers have no other choice but to activate monthly data plans just to be a part of online classes, which has been in force since 2020, due to the pandemic. Many teachers have made sacrifices and continue to do such, just to be a part of the classes and lecturer sessions. The Pre-service teachers are not being paid a perfect salary, but they make as their priority, to look for extra jobs to generate additional income to purchase data plans and buy materials for college assignments, for example, learning materials etc., and also to support themselves. Unfortunately, though many will say E- Learning is more effective and sustainable, I beg to differ especially in other areas or villages on the Essequibo Coast and the Pomeroon River, and those hinterland areas where internet connection is a major problem.
And again, lecturers don’t value the time and sacrifices of teachers who are trying their utmost best to be a part of these online classes. For a period of one month and counting, the linguistics lecturer attached to the Anna Regina In-service Center has ceased sending any work, for no reason. First year In-service teachers (Primary) have never received any link for online classes in the above course, and as we all know, linguistics is very challenging; without lectures or discussions with the lecturer, it is very difficult for teachers to cope with the course. English Proficiency has also had similar problems with the assigned lecturer for the Pre-service and In-service Primary. For a period of approximately 10 weeks, the English Proficiency Lecturer has only lectured, or kept a Google Meet session trice, with a time frame of 5 hours out of 20 hours. With these numbers, it is clear that our lecturers are sleeping in bright daylight.
Sincerely,
(Name and Address Provided)
