Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 06, 2018 News
– but Govt. assures process moving along
Should the new school year, slated to commence in September, start and there is no word on the inking of an agreement between Government and the Guyana Teachers’ Union [GTU] for a remuneration package for teachers, public schools will remain closed.
This was the threat by some teachers who picketed the Ministry of Finance, Main Street, Georgetown yesterday.
Public schools are scheduled to close their doors from today for an eight-week period, but according to one of the lead-protesters, Kerwin Mars, “If by August month-end, we don’t hear anything from them, then September, they shall go and open the schools themselves.”
In fact, Mars said that failure to share the status of the process regarding the Agreement will result in teachers returning in full-strength to the picket line when the new school year begins.
The picketing exercise represents the second such action to be taken by teachers in the days after they decided to voice their concerns regarding what they believe is government’s slothful approach to accepting and inking a remuneration package for them.
The recommendations for the remuneration package under scrutiny was in fact one arrived at by a Task Force established at the behest of President David Granger which saw representation from several government Ministries including Finance, Education, Communities and the Ministry of the Presidency, along with representatives of the Guyana Teachers Union [GTU]. A report containing the recommendations of the Task Force was handed over since April to Cabinet and in turn to the Ministry of Finance.
The move to retaliate the perceived stalled process commenced on Tuesday with members of the South Georgetown branch of the GTU, on which Mars sits as the Chairman, picketed the Woolford Avenue, Georgetown office of the union.
The members had moved to take this action because they were of the belief that the Union was not doing enough to address their concerns. But the Union, through its General Secretary, Ms. Coretta McDonald, has since stated its intention to support its membership in whatever action they propose.
Yesterday’s picketing exercise; however came one day after the Ministry of Education through its Public Relations Department, appealed for the patience of teachers as efforts are made to process the document presented by the Task Force.
But instead of an appeal for patience, Mars said that the Education Ministry should have been issuing an unequivocal apology to teachers.
“I don’t think that they [government] were patient when they gave themselves a 50 percent increase after they got into office. Our patience has gone way beyond thin; we don’t have any more patience and I don’t think we can wait anymore.
“We don’t need the Ministry to come and tell us to be patient anymore, we want the Finance Minister to come and say this is where we are at and we have this to do…Nobody is saying anything but they are asking us to be patient; we have no more patience to wait on this government…Even if there was another government in place, we would have done the same thing,” Mars asserted.
Speaking on the issue at yesterday’s Post Cabinet press briefing, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, confirmed that following the salary negotiation process by the Task Force, a report containing the resulting recommendations was presented to Cabinet.
The document was in turn referred to the Ministry of Finance. This move was required, Harmon said, “because there are some very serious financial implications in the recommendations that were made by the Committee.”
The current state of affairs, he said, is that the Finance Ministry has completed its assessment of the report and its report will be presented to Cabinet for further discussion.
“So we are at that point in time where the reports have been submitted. The Ministry of Finance has gone through it and it will now come to Cabinet to make a determination,” said Harmon.
He added, “I want to say to our teachers who have been doing an excellent job with our children that we have considered the entire remuneration package benefits to teachers to be important. We do not make any distinction either here or there with our teachers [because] they are very valuable, they bring up all [of] our children…”
In fact, the Minister of State yesterday made a promise to continue to have an eye out for the nation’s teachers.
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