Teachers to benefit from five per cent increase next month - Manickchand

Teachers to benefit from five per cent increase next month – Manickchand

Dec 17, 2014 News

While teachers can prepare to receive a five percent increase of their salaries early in the New Year, moves will more than likely have to be engaged by the union to commence renewed negotiations with Government for a remuneration package that will take effect from 2016.
At a recent press conference Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, noted that unlike other public servants, teachers will from next month be eligible for a pay increase, an undertaking that is premised on a multiple-year agreement forged with Government.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was inked in 2011 between the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the Government through the Ministry of Education, which clearly defines the benefits that teachers will receive over the period of the MOU.
The MOU was slated to cater to a five per cent pay hike for teachers over a period of five years and will therefore expire next year.
Manickchand, in commenting on measures apace to help improve the livelihood of teachers, said that “I am happy to say that teachers next year will not have to wait till the end of the year or until further negotiations between their Union and the Government to decide on what increases they will get.”
Moreover, she noted that teachers will be entitled to an increase of five per cent of whatever they are earning as at December 31, 2014.
“We know right now that this will happen for teachers in the (public) education system,” Manickchand said at her press conference.
However, the Union, which is currently headed by Mark Lyte, will have to be proactive and commence negotiations early enough to cater to increased pay for teachers in 2016.
Even as efforts are being made to cater to the remuneration of teachers, the quality of teachers is gaining close attention from the Education Ministry. Training of teachers is currently initiated at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), the country’s lone teachers’ training institution.
Currently CPCE caters to a total student population of 1,588 and that population is spread across four programmes in nine of the 10 administrative regions.
According to Minister Manickchand, the Associate Degree in Education (ADE) Programme, which has a two-year duration, is offered in the coastal centres of Anna Regina, Georgetown, Linden, New Amsterdam, Rose Hall, Vreed-en-Hoop, and at the Turkeyen campus.
In September 2014, 540 students enrolled for the ADE programme of which 67 were males and 473 were females, translating to 12 per cent and 88 per cent, respectively.
The Trained Teachers’ Certificate programme on the other hand, which is a three-year duration programme, is being accessed by students from as far as Moruca, Mabaruma, Aishalton and Lethem, while the Teachers Upgrading Programme (TUP), a two-year programme, saw 250 students being enrolled in October 2014.
According to Manickchand, satellite centres for this programme have been in place at Mabaruma, Moruca, Port Kaituma, Lower and Upper Mazaruni, while new centres are at Charity, Mahaicony Creek and St. Lust in the Berbice River.
The number of students currently enrolled in the TUP programme stands at 352 and includes the continuing students from Mahdia, Annai and Lethem. Minister Manickchand disclosed that successful completion of the TUP programme will in fact qualify students for the Trained Teachers’ Certificate Programme.
Teachers in training have also been able to access the one-year Technical Teachers Education programme. The latter is a new programme for technical lecturers, facilitators and instructors of technical institutes and practical instruction centres, who have technical qualifications but lack pedagogy. In June 2014 the first batch of 14 students was enrolled.
And according to the Education Minister, the system is set to be bolstered with the graduation of a batch of over 350 from CPCE tomorrow.

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Teachers to benefit from five per cent increase next month – Manickchand

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