The Chief Education Officer yesterday said a planned strike by the GTU on Monday would be illegal and he urged teachers not to join, arguing that the ministry has fulfilled many of the union’s demands and others are under consideration.
In an open letter to all head teachers and teachers, Chief Education Officer, Saddam Hussain said that he considered the course of action being recommended, “to be quite unexplainable and incongruous considering the relationship between the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the GTU.”
On Monday, the GTU announced that teachers will be taking industrial action come February 5 until a favourable response is obtained from the MoE and the other relevant authorities, regarding salary increases and non-salary benefits, among other pending issues.
Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) General Secretary Coretta McDonald expressed her frustration with the government’s handling of negotiations. According to her, in 2020 a proposal was submitted by the union to the government. This proposal, she explained was supposed to span from 2020 to 2023, but no response has been forthcoming on it, to date.
“So that proposal is what we’ve been arguing all the time about… We wrote them… We wrote the Ministry of Labour, since GTU and the Ministry of Education… since the two parties could not sit and agree on the form of negotiations, on what the outcome is going to be, we wrote the Ministry of Labour and we asked the Chief Labour Officer if the two sides cannot sit, let the Ministry of Labour now act as the mediator,” McDonald told Stabroek News on Monday.
The Member of Parliament (MP) continued that after 14 days had elapsed without a response to the GTU’s letter of appeal, they sent yet another letter, but received no response still. This then led to another letter being sent, this time with a request for an arbitrator, the ultimate stage in the process.
Hussain’s letter yesterday disclosed that in its quest to provide critical support to teachers, the MoE yesterday morning held a pre-arranged, scheduled meeting with the teachers union to address the payment of teachers who have completed GOAL programmes, the implementation of Circular 7 of 2023 which allows for an additional deputy head teacher, senior master/mistress and reduction in the workload of teachers, in addition to other issues which revolved around teachers’ conditions of work. And as far as the Ministry is concerned, such engagements illustrate the Ministry’s commitment towards improving the lives of teachers.
In his letter the CEO acknowledged that the GTU had made 41 proposals for better working conditions, and in response MoE had fulfilled 25 of those requests in less than 3 years. Further, of the 16 remaining requests 2 are specifically for the benefit only only GTU and GTU executive members, and two are contrary to the laws of Guyana.
“In essence, the MoE has not reached an agreement with GTU on the following issues: salary increases for some scales (MoE has gone above GTU’s request for some scales), allowances, rehired teachers paid at the scale that they retired at, housing fund (which the Union has repeatedly failed to give a way forward for although the fund has a few hundred million dollarsput there by the Government) and salary scales for different HoDs and Sixth Form Deputy Heads, payment for the marking of SBAs and house lots for teachers in each new housing scheme.”
It was pointed out that the 12 unresolved issues are currently being examined for their practical implementation and sustainability. And in fact, only two weeks ago, the Minister of Education tasked the Exams Division of the MoE to consider her proposals and return with options in order for a stipend to be paid to teachers who manage SBAs.
“It is for these reasons that the threat of a strike is incomprehensible.”
Hussain referred to his experience as an educator and noted that he was aware of the difficulties that teachers experience in doing their job, many being non-financial issues. As such, he pointed out the actions taken by MoE to simplify the teaching process while reducing the burdens of being a teacher.
It was emphasised that these changes were not requested by GTU, but instead initiated and implemented by MoE. Some of these changes include:
1. The removal of the Child Development Index Card (CDIC) as a required school document.
2.The removal of the General Scheme of Work as a curriculum document.
3. The weekly preparation of lesson plans rather than daily.
4. All trained teachers being eligible to be a Senior Assistant Master/Mistress after 6 years rather than 7.
5. Fifty duty-free teachers per year plus the granting of a duty-free concession to all senior teachers who have three years left to serve and have not received a concession previously.
6. All teachers being provided termly with grants to purchase teaching materials.
7. All CPCE pre-service trainees being paid $90,000 rather than a $10,000 stipend per month except a trainee teacher who refuses same.
8. The Ministry of Education requested the Teaching Service Commission and the School Board Secretariat to do two senior promotion cycles per year so that more teachers can be promoted and earn a higher salary.
9. A general waiver letter to allow teachers to travel abroad without collateral.
10. The issuance of one waiver letter to cover a teacher’s contracted period.
11. The holders of the Technical Teachers’ Certificate being appointed as Assistant Master/Mistress.
12. The creation of more senior vacancies in nursery, primary, and secondary schools.
13. The reduction in teaching periods for secondary teachers.
14. The assignment of an assistant teacher to senior teachers in primary and nursery schools.
15. The appointment of floating teachers to schools to reduce the workload and substitute for teachers who are absent.
16. The implementation of the EMIS system which will eliminate most aspects of manual record keeping.
17. An Open Day policy which is held centrally and regionally to address teachers’ concerns.
18. The appointment and upgrade of all teachers who attended Uuniversity of Guyana without official release and permission before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
19. A reduction in the amount of teaching practice for CPCE teachers.
20. The institution of a digitalised senior promotion process.
21. A simplification in the Teacher Upgrade Process after improved qualifications.
22. The substitution of the head teachers’ monthly report with a reduced digital version.
23. A waiver for the issuance of the permanent trained teachers’ certificate.
24. The placement of guidance and counselling officers in secondary schools to assist with the disruptive behaviour of students.
25. The continuous placement of a data entry clerks in each school to assist with digital record keeping,
26. The removal of the quota system to attend UG.
27. The introduction of a Teacher Support Unit within the Ministry of Education.
“The decision to strike is illegal and goes contrary to the agreements signed by the MoE and GTU (10 April, 1990). To be clear, the MoE has received advice from the Ministry of Labour, the experts on the issue, that conditions for strike action have not been met as a result of which any such strike would be wholly illegal and unlawful.”
The letter opined that the GTU was being “unduly influenced” by its General Secretary who serves as Member of Parliament for the main opposition. It further expressed concern at the timing of the proposed strike reminding that the threat of industrial action sets a bad precedence since this is the final term before the NGSA and CSEC exams. “Any disruption to the teaching/learning process could affect individual children and their entire future thereby hampering the ability for families to use education to exit poverty.”
Therefore the letter called on all head teachers and teachers to reject GTU’s call to strike.
The GTU believes that it has exhausted all options and that industrial action is now necessary. It hopes that the government will engage with them and implement aspects of their proposal.
“Pay us. And then we will start talking after then. Pay us what you owe us and then we’ll start talking after then. We’ll start talking about the new proposal,” McDonald urged on Monday night.
On November 9th last year, President Irfaan Ali announced a $25,000 one-off bonus for 67,000 public sector workers at a cost of $1.7b to be paid in December.
This includes the public servants, disciplined services, teachers, nurses, sugar workers and employees of semi-autonomous agencies etc.
In addition, all graduate teachers will be moved to the maximum of the scale applicable to the post that they currently occupy. This will pertain to 4,000 graduate teachers at an extra annual cost of $1b.
Graduate teachers with a bachelor’s degree will now get a monthly education allowance of $10,000.
Teachers with a master’s degree will get a $20,000 monthly allowance.
Teachers with a doctorate will have a monthly allowance of $30,000.
The remote area incentive for teachers will now be $20,000 per month from December 1st, 2023.
He also said that all teachers who hold the substantive position of senior master/mistress or above who are within three years of retirement and have not previously had a duty-free concession for a car will be eligible to receive a duty-free concession for a motor vehicle up to 1500 cc.
He said that there is currently provision for 100 duty-free concessions for teachers each year. Outside of this, each senior master/mistress and above who has not received the duty-free concession before will now be entitled to it three years before retirement.
