Latest update December 2nd, 2024 1:00 AM
Apr 12, 2012 News
…says they use Facebook during working hours
The President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, Colin Bynoe, has come down hard on teachers for unprofessionalism and what he termed ‘Cyber Misuse’. He was addressing the opening of the Third Biennial Conference of the union in New Amsterdam on Tuesday evening.
Bynoe underscored the importance of teachers dressing appropriately to demonstrate professionalism in front of students but charged teachers not to distract students with their “plunging necklines and other forms of dress that are suggestive and distractive to our students”.
He cautioned male teachers to “not display [their] chest hairs”.
Lessons, he noted, should be properly prepared and planned “with all the necessary materials available that are needed for that lesson”.
The union leader also cautioned educators not to get too emotional with students lest “we face charges of misconduct”. The union, he noted, has been plagued with “too many complaints of unprofessionalism on the part of some of our teachers”.
Bynoe added that some of these complaints pointed to lack of respect for authority, poor deportment, “and alarming levels of unpunctuality and absenteeism”.
“What is even more alarming is the large number of teachers involved in these practices”, he said.
He flayed what he termed ‘Cyber Misuse’ by some teachers “whose names can be easily recognized by their former head teachers [and] who can be seen posting comments on Facebook and other social networks during working hours.”
He said that what is even more alarming is that these teachers are not involved in educational discussions in their postings and that the evidence “reveals nude pictures are sometimes posted and even foul language written [on Facebook]”.
“This type of behaviour,” he cautioned, is “very unacceptable and must cease immediately”.
“Let us embrace such technology, [and] do so for the uplift of the teaching profession”.
Bynoe then blasted the government and those in authority. He said that not all rehabilitations of schools have led to improvement of teachers’ working conditions. “Several thousands of our teachers are forced to work under sub human conditions: new schools are built but no provisions have been made for staff rooms.
“Schools have been built without any electrical connection. Teachers are also saddled with insufficient seating accommodations and above all, poor construction of buildings by many contractors”.
The union leader said that many teachers are affected by dusty concrete floors and poorly ventilated buildings with insufficient lighting.
He urged the government to blacklist defaulting contractors entrusted with the maintenance and construction of schools, many of which were not done to standard.
Bynoe then blasted the body which hires, fires and disciplines teachers, the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) for what he called “cake shop” approaches that are not in keeping with [the TSC] constitution mandate.
He said that the TSC, which is responsible for disciplining errant teachers sometimes, executes this role “with great inconsistency”. “Rules are created to suit some cases and when this happens, several persons are disenfranchised”.
He talked about Administrative Appointments of teachers whereby five teachers were blocked from being promoted because of their age. Also, he spoke about a few teacher vacancies in 2011 that were not advertised by the TSC but were mysteriously filled.
“Senior vacancies were out for 2011, and vacancies were not advertised for certain positions in a few schools, but persons were promoted to these positions….these “cake shop” approaches by the TSC are not in keeping with their constitutional mandate” and he urged that all vacancies be advertised so that everyone will be aware of them.
Bynoe reminded teachers that the TSC reported that 164 teachers were recommended for dismissal, among them several Head Teachers. “Some teachers had to be interdicted from duty and some dismissed for charges of child abuse and vulgar and inappropriate behaviour, as well as inappropriate relationships with students”.
He urged teachers to desist from such practices immediately and exhibit a high level of accountability.
The GTU president noted with concern that several parts of the April 2011 GTU/Ministry of Education multi- year agreement have not been implemented to date, including the debouching of class sizes, the Housing Revolving Fund and the return fare for teachers serving in the hinterland.
“The `Debouching Committee has already decided on the range for payment as per salary scale. It is now the responsibility of the Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry to put the full cost of this exercise to the Ministry of Finance”, he urged.
He mentioned the case of teachers in Region Nine being told that they have to choose which two [school] terms they wish to travel out of the region.
“It seems as though some Regional Educational Officers have a different agreement than the one signed by the GTU and MOE” and reminded those guilty that if the situation is not corrected, the GTU will support its members in taking the necessary action.
Bynoe expressed the need for teachers to deal with a smaller number of students in the classroom so that “students can realize their full potential” and individual attention. “The present student- teacher ratio does not cater for a child-centered approach to learning, thus many of our learners are not receiving individualized attention that is necessary for effective learning”.
He called on the Ministry of Education to take cognizance of this matter and implement small classroom sizes by September 2012.
The conference continues until Friday in New Amsterdam.
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