These are the facts - teachers form your opinions

These are the facts – teachers form your opinions

May 16, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
Much has been said about the new salary agreement signed between the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU). On the one hand the GTU president is saying that it is a giant leap forward and on the other hand some trade union leaders and at least one commentator see it as a leap backward. I am not convinced that enough is being done to communicate to teachers, who are the beneficiaries/victims of this agreement.
There has been no review of the past agreement or comparison done with the present agreement.
Fact is, what seems to be said about the contents of the agreement appears to be in conflict with what is written in it. In the chart below I have retyped verbatim what is in the agreement, and compared it with the 2006-2010 agreement so that teachers can compare the present agreement with the past one.
Based on what was signed above, the union got a five percent across the board for five years without review, $1000 increase for the certificate and diploma in Education, $2000 increase for masters degree and $5000 for a doctorate degree, $2000 increase in the clothing allowance, duty free concessions for DHMs of grade A schools, 50% increase in the hardlying and station allowance, an increase of airfare/bus fare for teachers who live on the coast land and who work in the hinterland and five more scholarships.
The union was promised that the Housing Fund (I am not sure if this was ever established) will continue to receive $40,000,000 per year for the five years, that the Ministry of Housing will be engaged to consider granting 100 house lots, that after one year the duty free concession will be reviewed to consider the possible inclusion of other categories of teachers, a 1% of the annual wage bill for teachers to implement the debunching exercise, that the ratio of students to teacher will be looked at and that there will be the establishment of a joint committee to look at the performance of school boards.
The union lost the five million dollars a year subvention which we were told would be used for education and training and the 1% performance based incentive. This agreement says nothing about approaching the IFIs with a proposal to seeking grants etc. to improve teachers’ salaries and conditions of work. No proposal was ever done.
GTU’s argument
According to Mr. Bynoe, the reason for accepting an across the board increase of five percent for five years without the possibility of review is as a result of the austerity measures being implemented in England and France.
He did not state however, that the National Union of Teachers in the UK is not taking some of the measures recommended by the Government lying down especially where their pensions are concern. The General Secretary of the NUT is reported to have said that the NUT will ballot members for strike action in the summer term,” to help get a fair deal for teachers.
Austerity measures are strict measures implemented by a government to help bring expenditures in line with revenue. These measures have resulted in job losses, the raising of the retirement age and in some cases the increasing of the value added tax rate.
Mr. Bynoe also made the point that Barbados is now proposing to increase its minibus rate by sixty dollars. I am not sure if this is true
since I have not been able to find any information regarding this proposed increase on the internet. However, on www.Totallybarbados.com it is stated that bus fares for adults typically costs about B$1.50.
Barbados is ranked a developed country, the dollar is stable and social services are comparatively better – so in my opinion the comparison is irrelevant given the fact that Guyana does not possess the socio-economic conditions
The comparative facts are there to prove that in 2006-2010 agreement, the issue of debunching, the ratio of students to teacher, the housing revolving loan fund, and the review of the school boards were not addressed.
We were not told if any work was done on these issues and after five years where things stand. The performance based incentive was a good thing and it appears that we may have given that up.
Mr. Christopher Ram sees the 5% increase as a wage freeze and states in his column that the average rate of inflation for the last five years was 6.5% and when I listen to Mr. Bynoe’s arguments I am remind of the saying that when ideas fail, words come in handy.
In the words of Carr, “facts are sacred, opinions are free.” These are the facts; teachers now form your opinions.
Milne Seymour

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