Latest update December 4th, 2024 2:40 AM
Were it possible, teachers would be best paid workers – Education Minister
“If I had my own way and we had an infinite amount of money I would make the teachers the best paid
Education Minister,
Dr Rupert Roopnaraine
workers in the country,” said newly-appointed Minister of Education, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine. He is of the firm conviction that teachers are tasked with one of the most valuable jobs around.
“We can have the most glorious projects and dig as many tons of gold out of the earth, but in the end if we don’t set about educating the Guyanese citizens and turn them into citizens of real quality, sophistication and experience and all of that, we would have failed,” the Education Minister asserted.
In fact he intimated that he has long been convinced that there are, at least, two categories of very important workers in Guyana who are hugely underpaid. These, according to him, are teachers and nurses.
Moreover, Dr Roopnaraine is of the belief that the salaries of the aforementioned categories of workers must be hugely improved. When asked what percentage increase would be ideal for these workers, Dr Roopnaraine added, “I can’t sit here now and give you figures; obviously this is a matter that I have to go into close consultation with my colleagues in the Ministry of Finance”.
His remarks in this regard were forthcoming during a recent interview with this publication during which he was asked to share his opinion on a suitable remuneration package for teachers. According to him, “we don’t live in an ideal world (and) there is a limited amount (of money) to go around but I believe that teachers must be adequately paid, they must be able to live lives that permit them a certain amount of dignity.”
“You can’t have teachers selling plantain chips at break time to top up their salaries; that is simply not acceptable,” said the new Education Minister, as he assured that examining the remuneration package of teachers is definitely an issue on his priority agenda.
“We have to look at remuneration, we have to discuss this with the Union and I don’t want to just say what percentage I think we should increase teachers’ salaries by.”
He added, “I do believe that teachers deserve to live good lives to essentially leave the classroom satisfied and earn a living that is commensurate with their importance in society”.
But as it relates to the payment of the debunching monies, which the Guyana Teachers’ Union organised industrial action for, Dr Roopnaraine was not prepared to comment on that.
He however stated that “I believe that we should honour all commitments that we can, given the circumstances, given what is available. We must do our best to essentially honour maximum commitments to our teachers”.
Meanwhile, Dr Roopnaraine speaking directly to the quality of teachers in the system acknowledged that this understandably varies from teacher to teacher and school to school. He however noted that this is going to be something that will be gaining his attention. And this is particularly important, he noted, because “children deserve to be taught by the most highly qualified and motivated teachers that we can produce; and motivated teachers in the classroom will produce the best teachers. So we have to look at that.”
While he hasn’t yet embraced a fixed position on the quality of teachers in the system, Dr Roopnaraine said that “a lot will depend on what I find when I go through and make an assessment and a lot of that will depend on the reports that I am receiving, but I don’t want to start out with conclusions. I want really to always make evidence-based judgements.”
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