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Sexual molestation in schools…
GTU President still to submit agreement to
Education Ministry
President of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), Mr Colwyn King, is still on a mission to prove to senior officials of the Education Ministry, particularly the Education Minister Mr Shaik Baksh, that actions which have been engaged by the ministry were in contravention of an agreement made some years ago.
But, according to King yesterday, he has been experiencing some difficulties in providing the requisite evidence for the benefit of the ministry’s officials.
King said that he had promised the minister a copy of the document, since he (the minister) had claimed that such a document was non-existent. But there are copies of the document. One unsigned copy was procured by this newspaper.
In fact, it was the minister, after being accosted by the union, who requested that a copy of the agreement be forwarded to him.
However, King yesterday admitted that so far he has not been able to produce any such document to the minister, because of human resource and technical constraints at his office.
King says that the GTU office is limited to his presence alone, since four staff members are on work detail in Region Eight, six are in Region One, and two are currently marking the Caribbean Secondary Entrance Certificate (CSEC) Examination.
Compounding this situation, King says, is the fact that the computers at his office are currently experiencing
As a result, he says, he is putting measures in place to have the document typed over, since his copies are very old, indicating that the agreement is an age-old one.
King, however, assured that a copy of the document should be ready and placed in the hands of the minister by next Wednesday.
Following the institution of disciplinary actions against some teachers in the public education sector, King had stated his intent to reveal that the actions were unjust, since they did not include inputs from the union, as was the expected protocol according to the agreement.
The agreement, King says, has been in existence even before the current minister assumed office. It is a document with which several top Education officials are well acquainted, yet they have chosen to remain silent on the issue.
According to the GTU President, senior officials, including Chief Education Officer Ms Genevieve Whyte-Nedd, are among those who had directly made use of the clauses within the document over the years.
Efforts to contact Ms Whyte-Nedd yesterday, to determine whether she was aware of the existence of the document, were dashed when her secretary informed that “she is busy and cannot comment at this time.”
Earlier this year, disciplinary actions were instituted against several teachers who had allegedly sexually molested students while on school premises. These actions were challenged by the union.
And according to King, investigations into the matter against a teacher at the Goed Fortuin Primary School found that that teacher was not guilty of any such act.
Similar allegations against a teacher of the Richard Ishmael School have since seen the resignation of that teacher, while another matter at the Charlestown Secondary School is in the courts and hence out of the hands of the union.
Head teachers of the schools under investigation were also targeted by the ministry with a view to ascertaining whether their negligence had allowed the unfortunate incidents to occur.
But, according to King, he is still awaiting word on investigations which had ensued against the head teachers of the Richard Ishmael and Charlestown Secondary Schools.
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