Latest update May 14th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 27, 2016 News
– but Commission insists “they want to make a big issue”
A change of the members of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) was the primary call yesterday when the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), represented by its executive and representatives of its 39 branches, engaged a protest action.
The placard-bearing protestors traversed the lawns of the TSC office on Brickdam, Georgetown, shouting slogans critical of the operation of the Leila Ramson-led Commission.
According to GTU President, Mr. Mark Lyte, the protest is the mode of action that the Union has embraced to force the hand of Government to replace the Commission which has undertaken some questionable actions.
“We are tired of them; they are dishonest…they are making appointments while there is a matter before the court,” said Lyte yesterday.
Lyte was at the time referring to the TSC’s recent promotion of a Grade C teacher to a Grade B school which was regarded as an administrative appointment.
Details of correspondence regarding the matter were shared with the media. Based on this correspondence, the TSC initially denied that such a promotion had occurred but subsequently rescinded its promotion decision, complete with an apology, which was forwarded to the GTU.
Another matter that has disturbed the Union is that of a questionable transfer of a Deputy Head Teacher to another school.
“When we learnt that an appointment was made, the Chairwoman denied that an appointment was made. She said that we were misinformed, but a day after she wrote saying she is sorry they are now recalling the appointment. If the Chairwoman is not aware that the appointments are being made, then who is doing the appointments?” Lyte asked yesterday.
He noted that currently the GTU versus TSC matter before the court pertains to the Union’s concerns that the TSC’s promotion process is flawed. Both parties are expected to appear in court on Friday.
“We are in no way trying to pre-empt the court’s ruling, but we are saying we no longer have confidence in this Commission and we want a new Commission,” said Lyte as he cautioned that inaction from Government will mean continued protest action region-wide.
“It is just in Georgetown today, but we will intensify this action in every region in front of the Ministry of Education,” said the GTU President, as he disclosed that “as long as Leila Ramson has been chairing the Commission we (GTU and TSC) have had a shaky relationship.”
“We have always had a problem, because teachers are not treated fairly. The Union has been quiet on the issue for too long, but we are not prepared to put up with it anymore,” asserted Lyte. He added that “of course there are some good persons on the Commission but that will have to be decided when they are doing the appointments.”
SURPRISING
But from her office on the top floor of the TSC building, Chairperson Ramson yesterday described the protest action as “surprising.”
She, however, noted that since the Union has already taken its concerns about the operation of the Commission before the Court “they should have allowed this matter to proceed that way.”
“This is the first time that this has ever happened at the Commission,” Ramson said. At the time she was in the company of two of her Commissioners, Phulandar Kandhi and Alan Munroe.
When asked whether the Commission might have erred in facilitating a promotion that has perturbed the Union, Ramson responded in the affirmative. In fact she went on to explain that “an error was made within the Commission and a teacher was indeed appointed and we rescinded that appointment. We wrote to the Union and we apologised and we thought that would have been the end of the matter.”
But according to Ramson, given the protest action, it is clear that the Union has not accepted the Commission’s apology.
“They want to make a big issue out of it,” said Ramson as she pondered even on the initial move by the Union to file an injunction to halt the finalising of the 2015 teachers’ promotion list.
“We felt that since they have a nominee here they were free to call us and say ‘look, this is what our nominee has reported, can you stop your promotion and let us have a meeting?’ They did not do that,” Ramson emphasised.
The Union, according to Ramson, premised its concerns with the TSC on the comments forthcoming from regional officials about applicants for the vacant teaching positions. But according to her, “we have been doing this for umpteen years…suddenly they wake up one morning and decide that this must not happen.”
“If they had a problem, we are human beings in here, they can call us and make an appointment and say ‘hold your promotion, we need to discuss this matter’…They did not do that, instead they went and filed an injunction and this is when the whole promotion was finished,” recalled the TSC Chairperson.
VICTIMS
Ramson moreover said that she was appalled that the Union would embrace its course of action since according to her, “we have always had a working relationship.”
The result of the Union’s tactic, she noted, would see teachers being the victims. Ramson noted that the existing state of affairs could severely affect some teachers, especially those who are up for retirement shortly.
“Some of them need their increment and they don’t know how long this matter is going to take. It means that if this matter doesn’t end very soon, we may not even have promotions this year, maybe next year. So the teachers will suffer,” Ramson asserted yesterday.
Commenting on the call by the Union for a change of the Commission, Ramson would only say “I have heard that since the new government took (its) place. I don’t know why they feel that way. They just feel that the whole Commission must go, including Ms. Leila Ramson,” the TSC Chairperson added.
She continued by stressing that “I don’t think people understand the work we do here; we don’t do any underhand business here, because whenever we are doing promotions or we have appointments, or the disciplinary committee (meets), the whole Commission sits there, including the Chief Education Officer, who is part and parcel of the promotion process. We don’t do underhand business here,” Ramson insisted.
As such, she noted that the Commission is not in any way prepared to disregard its work already done to process some 5,000 applications in order to prepare the 2015 promotion list.
“We stand by our work…processing 5,000 applications, that is too much to put my Commissioners through again! We offered them (the Union) to look at it (their concerns) next year and let it (what we have) go through and they have refused,” said Ramson as she speculated that the perhaps the action of the Union is merely a campaign gimmick. “They have elections next month and I don’t know if protesting and all of that is showing the teachers that ‘I am working for you, come to the elections and do what you have to do’,” the TSC Chairperson surmised.
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