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No place for untrained teachers in the system – says President Granger
There continues to be a very evident shortage of teachers, particularly in the area of science, in the
President David Granger
public education system. This state of affairs was observed by President David Granger, recently when he addressed a Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) awards ceremony.
The shortage of teachers exist, the President considered, despite there being an average of over 8,700 teachers in the school system spread throughout the 1,000 odd schools over the period 2011 and 2013.
This challenge, he disclosed, has particularly impacted the hinterland areas where children tend to do less well than those on the coastland.
The shortage dilemma is compounded by the retirement of the 70-odd teachers each year from the system and another 65 who resign to migrate or enter some other fields.
Based on information garnered from the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), the President disclosed that between 2009 and 2015 teachers were being dismissed at a rate of about 100 per year.
“This means that on average we are losing teachers… for various causes. So we have to dig holes to fill holes. Many of them retire, many of them resign but a lot are being removed for administrative and disciplinary reasons,” said the President. These challenges, he pointed out must be tackled through the collaborative effort of the Union and the Ministry of Education.
To address the teachers’ shortage he suggested, “We have to examine all over again, the way we recruit teachers into the education system.”
He considered that while the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) would have produced an average of 518 teachers between the years 2011 and 2014, more than half of these are lost for various reasons. “Many of those persons who have been employed in the school system and go through the Cyril Potter College of Education, they end up not serving what we would like to see of their full careers,” noted President Granger.
In addition to that, he vocalised his disappointment that large number of people are recruited as teachers although they haven’t attended CPCE, do not have a degree and are therefore considered untrained. Despite not having the adequate qualifications, about 1,700 untrained teachers were recruited during the period 2012-2015. This has translated to an annual average of 433, the President observed.
“This suggests that a significant number of untrained teachers still exist within the system even as a large number of trained teachers are leaving,” President Granger said.
“We need to think of career teachers who will remain in the system and would want to be trained in order to fulfil the requirements of the profession,” said the Head of State as he stressed the importance of training and re-training.
Even as he amplified the training need, the President questioned whether anyone would want to travel in a plane flown by a pilot who is untrained, or be operated on by an untrained doctor at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
“Why do you think parents would want to send their children into classrooms where over 1,700 teachers are untrained? You are begging for trouble,” he warned as he added, “There is really no place for untrained teachers in the education system.”
The President moreover urged that those in the system be challenged to be trained and thereby be empowered to perform their professional duties. It is his expectation that every teacher entering the system is trained and those in the system who are untrained must be trained.
He however noted that some teachers trained or not, behave in such a manner that perhaps the best thing is for them to be separated from the profession. He said, “Many teachers walk off the job; many teachers have had disturbing charges levelled against them by that teachers’ tribunal called the Teaching Service Commission.”
Teachers, the President observed too, have been accused of touching and fondling and even having sexual relations with their students; teachers have been accused of speaking in a vulgar manner or of inappropriate behaviour and engaging in inappropriate behaviours with students, some males and some females.
And according to the Head of State, “Such conducts have no place in the education system…” He however, is confident that sustained training of teachers will help to curb the existent challenges in the system.
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