Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, yesterday lashed out at the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), calling remarks made by its President “less than honest.”
At a press conference yesterday, Manickchand said that this has occurred despite the fact that the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union have for years enjoyed very good relations. She disclosed that collaboration between the two bodies have been instrumental in advancing the welfare of the members of the GTU.
Moreover, Minister Manickchand did not attempt to conceal her annoyance at what she called “burning, sensational GTU presentations”, published in the media in recent days. “I think that it is extremely unhealthy to be engaging the Ministry through the press and I think that it is a very new and worrying form of engagement…and I would caution them to rethink that strategy,” said the Minister as she asserted that “our doors have been opened to the Union…”
“We are in touch by telephone…up to last week there was a meeting; we have had monthly almost statutory meetings with the Union, so I am very surprised to see some of the issues that the Union’s executives have been raising and for the first time in the media where there is no engagement with us to address some of these issues,” said the Minister.
She speculated that the modus operandi is aimed at “getting some attention or staying relevant or becoming relevant…it should have been addressed with us, we are not preventing you thereafter or even simultaneously in going to the media,” said the Minister.
She, in making reference to disclosures in the media by GTU officials regarding duty free concessions for vehicles and the debunching of salaries, insisted that these were in fact not accurate representations of the truth.
GTU President,
Mark Lyte
Speaking of the duty free concession, GTU President, Mark Lyte, had said that the body has over the years submitted several lists of the names of teachers who qualified for a one-off duty free concession. In fact, he disclosed Wednesday at a press conference that “we have submitted names that would go right back to 2009 for those teachers who did not receive their duty free concessions when they were eligible and as such, we were expecting the Ministry to ensure that those teachers receive their duty free concessions…Lo and Behold 2014 came to an end and these were not granted.”
“We are saying that this in itself is an injustice meted out to our teachers who would have laboured in this profession for over 30 years, only to have to leave the profession without having that duty free concession given to them,” said a despondent Lyte.
Nevertheless, the GTU head said that he was optimistic that during the first quarter of this year, the process will be expedited so that teachers who have thus far been denied their duty free concessions will be so endowed. “We hope that those responsible will act swiftly,” added Lyte.
While the Minister acknowledged that there were some challenges that should not have even materialised, she categorically disputed the claims of the GTU President that there are eligible teachers who are yet to receive their duty free concessions. She insisted too, that the challenges that were had cannot be deemed merely the fault of the Ministry but the Union itself must also accept some responsibilities. “It is also the executives of the Union fault; they are trying to say that it is the Ministry’s fault but this is highly misleading,” said the Minister as she intimated that there were about a dozen teachers who were eligible in 2009. She noted that while their applications were not dealt with immediately, they were eventually furnished with their duty free concessions.
Head teachers and Deputy Head teachers of Grade A and B schools are eligible for duty free concessions once they would have served for at least three years and have at least five years remaining.
The Minister yesterday pointed out that although the Union was at fault in submitting the applications thereby causing them to be in a position of jeopardy, it was because she did not want the teachers to be penalised that efforts were made by her Ministry to ensure that they were afforded the privilege of receiving their concessions. “As far as we are aware there are no backlogs…I can specifically refute the representations made by the President of the Union assuming they are true. I’d like to believe that they are not because we have addressed these issues before,” asserted the Education Minister.
Like the GTU President’s disclosure on the duty free concession, the Minister also did not find favour with his claims about the debunching issue.
According to Lyte, the GTU is dissatisfied with the debunching agreement which was designed to place teachers in various salary scales based on their years of service. This agreement, according to Lyte, was signed in 2011 but to date no teacher has been able to benefit from it. “One may want to say that the process wasn’t clear,” said Lyte as he pointed out that in September of last year a Task Force completed its work in ensuring that the way was paved for the monies to be paid to teachers. “Again, the year came to an end and nothing was done,” said the GTU President as he disclosed that the Union had even written to the Education Minister asking that a response on the matter be forthcoming within three days. But according to him, “to date we have not received a response from the Ministry of Education. We are saying that this approach is unacceptable and we will not sit by and allow these things to continue to happen to our teachers.”
As such, Lyte shared his desire to see that something be done quickly so that teachers who deserve the additional incentive (through the debunching agreement) be given such.
But according to Minister Manickchand yesterday, “this again came up before and I have been friendly and a good partner; I thought there were mistakes being made even though members of the Union’s executive had gone to the public and laid the blame at the Ministry’s doors in a sensational exercise at the last Congress. We had cleared this up privately at our meetings with them,” Manickchand divulged yesterday.
In presenting her Ministry’s version of the debunching situation, the Education Minister explained that in 2010 a joint Committee was set up to deal with the proposal for debunching. The Committee saw representation from both the Ministry and the GTU sides, the Minister added.
She said that after the Committee met, a memorandum dated May 20, 2010, was sent to all head teachers, who are members of the Union, to submit information in a specified format as agreed upon by the Committee. But after one year, only about 10 per cent had submitted the requisite information, Manickchand disclosed. “In a memo dated the 24th May, 2011, a reminder was sent to the membership of the Union again in agreement with the Union’s Executive and so on, by mid 2012 we had received about 90 per cent of the forms we had sent out,” said the Minister.
According to her, the salary structure was designed for implementation of the debunching exercise and a costing was done based on a revised salary for 2011. At the start of 2013 a completed proposal was given by the Committee to Lancelot Baptiste, GTU’s Administrative Field Officer, in order to have discussion at the level of the Union.
In February of that same year, Manickchand recounted that Baptiste was advised that the Union was satisfied with the plan which was forwarded to the Ministry sometime late last year. “That is the sequence…the Government sat and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Union, because we want to do what is in the best interest of our teachers as far as our economy would allow. Why would we not then want to do this? I am saying that both sides could have perhaps done things a little bit quicker. So to lay the blame at our door steps is less than honest,” added the Education Minister.
Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2015/01/17/education-minister-labels-gtu-disclosures-as-less-than-honest/