GTU questions role of CPCE and UG to trained teachers

Feb 19, 2011 News

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The roles of the Cyril Potter College of Education and the University of Guyana was called into question yesterday when President of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), Colin Bynoe, addressed the recent decision by Government to retain overseas teachers for the areas of Mathematics and Science.
In fact, the whole dilemma was regarded as a “sad affair” by the GTU President, who lamented the fact that an announcement which speaks to the paucity of Mathematics and Science teachers in the education sector had to be made.
Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, at his weekly Cabinet press briefing on Thursday had disclosed the decision by Government to recruit overseas teachers for the targeted positions.
“Because we have been suffering we have to reach to this stage where we have to import teachers as a solution,” Bynoe lamented.
His comments were forthcoming yesterday at a press conference held at the Union’s Woolford Avenue headquarters. According to him not only is the union ignorant of the remuneration package that will be attached to this recruitment process but neither is it aware of what prompted the decision to “import teachers” in the first place.
Bynoe said that the union has plans to engage the Education Ministry to determine, “what really is the contractual arrangement that the Government will be putting in place to bring overseas teachers to teach here.”
So we need to know what sorts of contractual arrangements they are making. “This must be clarified,” the GTU President insisted, since it is customary that whenever local teachers are contracted to work in the Caribbean and elsewhere they are in receipt of the same salaries to that of the native teachers.
The GTU President also questioned yesterday whether overseas-based Guyanese teachers or even local persons who are now in the employ of the Ministry of Education could also be eligible for the recruitment process.
“Will they fall into the same remuneration package; will they be accepted? This is a concern to us.  We do hope that not because they are from overseas that these overseas people will be given super-salaries but that they will be treated just like Guyanese teachers.”
“The urgency in responding to the created need for Mathematics and Science teachers now has… more or less outstripped what national production levels can provide and this is why a decision has had to be examined and looked at to return to an older model of addressing the human resource needs of the teaching profession,” Luncheon had said.
Reports are that any remuneration arrangements will be in keeping with models used in the past.
But according to the GTU President the need for teachers from overseas also brings into question the usefulness of the training programme for local teachers undertaken by the National Centre for Education Resource Development.
The programme, according to Bynoe, has for the past 10 years been headed by Mr Mohandas Goolsarran. It should have been producing the needed teachers. “Is it that we are saying that his programme failed and if it is that his programme failed why he is still there?
“The question we are asking, too, is what is the role of the Cyril Potter College of Education to graduate Maths and Science teachers, and further what is the role of our University of Guyana in producing our own Maths and Science teachers? That is what we need to know.”
According to Bynoe the GTU is fully aware of the fact that Guyana has been losing teachers, particularly in the area of Mathematics and Science to schools in the Caribbean, North America and even Europe over the years.
This, he said, is often attributed to poor salaries and working conditions that they claimed were offered to them.  But even with the arrival of the overseas teachers, Bynoe noted that there could still be an impending problem as it relates to the communication level.
“Bringing teachers from overseas may bring with it a language barrier and may not necessarily improve the exodus of our Maths and Science teachers in Guyana. Bringing teachers from overseas might be a quick fix as to what people need…but we may still have a problem,” Bynoe said.
As part of the union’s concerns, Bynoe added, is whether proper research was done by the Ministry of Education ahead of making a proposal to the Government to recruit overseas teachers.
Given the limited disclosure as it relates to the whole scenario, Bynoe speculated yesterday that the possibility exist that before long the Government might also be encouraged to import teachers for other subject areas.
“Tomorrow it may very well be language and then another subject…While the GTU would indeed like to see that the education system move forward we are a bit disturbed that the message is being sent clearly to us that our locals seem not to be fitting the purpose for what we really want in terms of our education policy… That is our dilemma and this signal to our teachers is not a nice one and can cause frustration to those who are trying their best in the Education System.”
It is for this reason, Bynoe said, that the Union is requesting that more information be shared with the GTU in terms of any research conducted to spur the recruitment drive. “I don’t think that this is an unreasonable request…”
The GTU President’s views were unequivocally mirrored by GTU Member, Lancelot Baptiste, who shared his belief that the recruitment of overseas teachers will in no way address the brain drain problem that the education sector is faced with today.
“One has to come to the reality that the schools within the Caribbean and in North America are asking mainly for our Maths and Science teachers.”
In recognition of this fact, Baptiste said, there is a need for the true cause of the problem to be addressed, taking into consideration the fact that Guyana had recruited overseas teachers in the past.
“One needs to go back to see what really is the reason…The main reason is the salaries and that needs to be addressed…We don’t want to be penny wise and pound foolish,” Baptiste added.

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