Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton yesterday vouched that if his party was returned to government he would ensure that public servants receive a minimum 35% increase.
At a press conference yesterday, Norton said, “The People’s Progressive Party’s offer to the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) of a 10% increase on teacher’s salary is ridiculous, disrespectful, vindictive and a reflection of the disdain that the regime has for teachers and other public officials.”
He stated that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and President Irfaan Ali had demanded, while in opposition, that the APNU+AFC government pay teachers 50%. “They made this demand under the then government before the discovery of oil, claiming that the then government could afford it. Now when there is oil the said government is contending that they cannot afford to pay teachers 50% increase. This is the level of hypocrisy, disdain, vindictiveness and trickery that [they] are meting out to the hard working teachers of this nation,” Norton said.
The new package, Norton said, “delivers little or nothing to teachers and is a mere smokescreen for concealing the fact that the government is unprepared to treat teachers fairly. When it is recognised that the infrastructure budget is $666 billion and the main fund for PPP corruption, then it is obvious that the PPP is deliberately impoverishing our teachers and have no interest in improving the quality of their lives.”
Reduction in corruption and waste in infrastructure projects, he said, could realise “at least $50 billion which can give more than a 35% increase, just easily finding the money to pay our teachers.”
Asked about the GTU opting to ink the deal with the Ministry of Education, Norton said, “from the outside it does appear that there was not a consensus and that they didn’t engage the teachers, so I wouldn’t say the Guyana Teachers Union, I would say some elements in the Guyana Teachers Union.”
According to Norton, the current leadership of Guyana does not show that they are serious about improving the education sector. Mentioning the “declining pass rate and whether there is a plot to make Guyana become a nation of idiots”, Norton said, “to the extent that you are led by idiots they would want idiots below.”
He said teachers not being paid a livable wage could not be rationalised at a time when the country has revenue from oil.
