No favouritism in teachers’ promotion - TSC

No favouritism in teachers’ promotion – TSC

Feb 07, 2014 News

“There is no favouritism in promoting teachers,” said Chairperson of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), Leila Ramson.
Ramson, during an interview with this publication, said that there are a number of teachers who are of the belief that “we at the teaching service have favourites when we are doing promotions, but this is not so.”

Leila Ramson, TSC Chairperson

According to the TSC Chairperson, who has sat at the helm of the commission for the past 19 years, “I can assure you that when we are doing promotions we – Commissioners and the Chief Education Officer – sit around the table, and even if I have a sister that I would like to assist, it can’t be done, because if I do it for my sister then the other commissioners would want to do it for their families and friends too.”
The task of teachers’ promotion is conducted by seven commissioners (including Ramson) and the CEO of the Education Ministry, who according to her, are required to go through “tons” of applications and files in order to score and decide where, or if, teachers are eligible to be promoted. And this task, she underscored, is a rather “long and tedious” process.
“We have to go through the many files and all applications; and there are some positions, especially in Georgetown, where you have as much as 45 applications coming in and all those applications have to be scored,” said Ramson.
Although the TSC is not yet aware of the vacancies that are available to teachers this year, it is expected that a list will be made available by the Education Ministry this week. And according to Ramson, some of the applications will be coming from as far as the interior too.
“We are starting this exercise this month and we anticipate that it will finish at the end of June. We have to keep this schedule so that we can advertise the positions,” Ramson said. She disclosed that once advertised, the teachers desirous of promotion will have a month-long period to fill up the relevant forms and send same to their respective Regional Education Offices. Having been examined by the Region, the applications are then sent to Central Ministry before they are forwarded to the Commission.
Aside from scoring teachers, the TSC Commissioners are also tasked with conducting interviews with some teachers for their promotion.
“We have to do so many interviews and finish them in one week, in order to keep our schedule and finish everything in good time, so that teachers know who will be promoted, and that they will make proper arrangements to do their handing over in the schools,” the TSC Chairperson explained.
Even as the Commission is gearing for senior promotions, Ramson said that efforts will soon be directed to junior promotions as well. She disclosed that junior vacancies are in fact available in every Region each term, a situation that is premised on the fact that some teachers simply do not return to the public school system.
“There are teachers who either leave to go away or some who don’t go back to school because of some domestic problems or they want to look after their children…Every term we have these vacancies at every level,” said Ramson, who noted that the TSC is prepared to continue its work fervently this year.