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Apr 19, 2013 News
“They are not supposed to be desk officers”
While maintaining that the Education sector has seen some amount of improvement, President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, Colin Bynoe, during an interview with this newspaper on Wednesday last, voiced his disapproval with Regional Education Officers (REdOs) operating as though they are “desk officers”, and hardly leaving their offices to conduct groundwork in the various schools.
Bynoe said that since each officer is responsible for just a few schools in their district, they should be actively involved with is happening at these institutions.
He explained that what most of the REdOs do is send reports to the Ministry of Education which would essentially give the impression that everything is going smoothly in the schools. He however stated that all might not be going well in these schools, and while formal reports of the issues affecting both teachers and students have not been made, the GTU is aware of some them.
One of the main issues is teachers not receiving adequate supplies to conduct their lessons.
There are also cases where the efficiency of the teachers needs to be assessed and monitored in order to ensure that they too are performing as they should.
“This is the only way that things can move forward. These individuals are in the system so that they can mould future generations, so we need to be very thorough in this regard,” Bynoe said.
In addition to this, the GTU president mentioned several other areas where the Regional Education Officers can help to improve, if only they “stop being desk officers and get down to some real work”.
He said that apart from reports to the Ministry, the role of a Regional Education Officer is to give guidance to teachers and ensure that they too are performing as they should.
“The GTU wants the Ministry of Education to assess the role of these individuals (Regional Education Officers) and come up with strategies that would ensure that they perform efficiently. If they do the right thing… and do what they are supposed to do, the delivery of education in this country would become simple,” Bynoe said.
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