TSC to move ahead with appointments without GTU input

Mar 11, 2009 News

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–    Leila Ramson

Advertisements for vacant teaching positions in public schools are likely to commence within the next two weeks and according to Chairman of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), Ms Leila Ramson, interviews for appointments will be conducted even without the involvement of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU).
Ramson related that the process has been delayed for almost two weeks because of unwarranted commotion from the GTU.

The TSC Chairman’s disclosure comes in wake of a decision made by President of the GTU, Colwyn King, to not be a part of the process unless the union has a direct input in the appointment of teachers.
King had earlier said that the union has been bombarded by complaints of teachers within the public education system who have applied for positions and have been turned down because of personal and political affiliations.
But according to Ramson, the GTU President’s disclosure is completely inaccurate and has no place in the TSC. “We don’t know the teachers that we are appointing…It has nothing to do with the individuals, all we deal with is their records not their personal or political affiliations.”
According to Ramson, the promotion and appointment of teachers have always been transparent even as she pointed to the fact that such undertakings are engaged by a panel of commissioners and not by a single individual.
“Our system is always transparent we don’t have one and two people, we use every member of the panel which consists of seven commissioners and also members of the Ministry are allowed to come in…”
The panel, Ramson related, includes a GTU nominee as well as the Chief Education Officer, thus it is unfair for the union President to say that the process is not transparent enough.
During interviews, teachers are selected for promotion based on a point system, according to Ramson, who added that each teacher’s file is available for the perusal of each member of the panel.
“If a commissioner has a doubt in his or her mind about the points allocated to teachers they are free to open the files or they can ask question and even offer comments.”
The TSC Chairman also pointed out that the GTU also seems to have a problem with the fact that the TSC only interviews teachers for the headship of Grades ‘A’ and ‘B’ Schools for all levels – nursery, primary and secondary.
According to Ramson, the GTU’s concerns seem to be rooted mainly in the fact that its representative unlike the other members of the panel is not able to score during the interviewing process.
“For the past four years we have been having interviews and the GTU is allowed to sit in as an observer but is not allowed to score. We (the TSC) cannot give away our powers. The union suddenly has decided that it now wants to share our mandate and is now making a fuss about the process…They now want to score but we cannot allow this…”
Ramson asserted that the TSC is the only body that is mandated to appoint teachers, remove teachers and impose disciplinary action, thus the GTU cannot dictate how the appointment process is conducted.
And while Ramson claims that she is unaware what prompted the union’s ultimatum to be involved in the scoring process or not at all, she did speculate that the move may have been instigated by continuous complaints by some teachers who have not been promoted.

“Some teachers if they are not promoted, they will complain and feel that the TSC is biased. And that is what the GTU is saying too. I am saying that there is nothing swept under the carpet here, there is transparency all around.”
As a result of the concerns raised by the union, the TSC chairman said that she had initially decided not to hold any interviews and simply work with the point system alone to appoint teachers. However at a recent meeting which saw the attendance of education and union officials, Ramson said that she was convinced, through the Chief Education Officer, that the interview process must be retained. As such, she noted, a decision was made to have the interviews but employ a different strategy.
It was at the end of the meeting, Ramson related, that the GTU president declared that if he cannot be allowed to score at the interviews then he is pulling out altogether.
“They don’t want to sit in, they don’t want to do anything, but life has to go on. There are many teachers out there waiting to see our vacancy list, they are waiting for promotion. So we will proceed without the GTU’s involvement.”
According to Ramson, everything in the interviewing criteria will remain the same for now, but she noted that by next year the procedure will be modified. “We cannot go along with what was there we must do some changes and within two weeks the vacancies will be published in the press.”
Ramson noted that when the teachers from the Grades ‘A’ and ‘B’ schools are shortlisted they will be invited to interviews.
Because of the action of the union, she related that the process has already been delayed by more than two weeks. However she noted that the process will be completed by July.
“We usually have our results out before school closes so that the teachers know which school they are going to next term and are able to do a proper handing over. This is not going to happen this year. The appointment process is a very long process. We start from January and make appointments in June.”
Ramson related that thousands of applications are usually sent to the TSC following advertisement of the vacancies, adding that sometimes more than 15 teachers from a single school apply for the same position, particularly in the city. As such she noted that the personnel and registry staff of the TSC are tasked with putting in overtime hours to check every application and every file of the applicants to ensure the process is completed in a timely manner. (Sharmain Cornette)

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