Unqualified teachers will be terminated if reluctant to upgrade themselves - Baksh

Unqualified teachers will be terminated if reluctant to upgrade themselves – Baksh

Mar 01, 2009 News

The Ministry of Education is prepared to terminate the services of all unqualified and temporary qualified teachers within the public education sector if they are not enrolled in a teacher-training institution by September 2010.
Minister of Education Shaik Baksh recently made this disclosure even as he reiterated the Ministry’s intent to ensure that the system has a minimum of 70 per cent trained teachers within the next five years.
“We only have 57 per cent trained teachers, which means that we have a large number of teachers in the system already who are not trained. They are either unqualified or temporary qualified teachers, so we have to address this.”

And in order to address the situation, the Minister said that the Ministry has streamlined a programme to bring all the teachers on stream.
In this regard he revealed that the teachers will be sent letters stating that “by September 2010 they must be enrolled in a teacher-training institution in this country, failing which we will proceed to terminate the services of some of those teachers who refuse”.

However, the Minister noted that, if after reviewing the teachers’ response there are good grounds for them not commencing training by the stipulated deadline, then they will have to do it the following year.
“We will have that flexibility, but generally if unqualified teachers are reluctant to enter training college to upgrade, their services will be terminated,” the Minister warned.
At the moment teachers could enrol in observation and upgrading programmes that are on stream and conducted by the Adult Education Association (AEA) and the University of Guyana’s Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE).

These programmes, according to the Minister, are in place to upgrade teachers so that they can gain entry into the teachers’ college.
Meanwhile the Minister disclosed that the Ministry is working towards strengthening the links between the University of Guyana and the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) to address the number of training years that are required for a teacher to be certified and obtain a degree in education.
Currently seven years is required for a teacher to be fully qualified. However the Minister noted that “we have to reduce the number of years using distance mode. We are now working on a strategic plan and we have to look at quality assurance issues… this is the real issue.”
As such the Minister said that over the last two months efforts have been made to improve on staffing so that more lecturers are on the job to train teachers, even as he noted that the Ministry has advertised for additional lecturers.

In addition to ensuring that unqualified teachers are trained, the Minister disclosed that the Ministry is also working on a programme to attract persons with the requisite entry qualifications for the University of Guyana to enter the CPCE, so that they can undertake a Degree programme in Education jointly with the university over a five-year period.
According to Minister Baksh, the Ministry if now computing the proposal since it is hoped that additional funding will be made available for its implementation.

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