GTU representative belatedly dropped from Education COI

Aug 25, 2016 News

A key education stakeholder – the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) – has been dropped from the

GTU President,
Mr. Mark Lyte

Ministry of Education’s Commission of Inquiry (COI).
At the commencement of the COI, a representative of the GTU was asked to be a part of the Commission. GTU President, Mr. Mark Lyte was named the GTU representative. However, this publication was reliably informed that the Union’s representation was discontinued about a month ago, reportedly because of a lack of funds.
Reports suggest that a request was made to Cabinet for the individuals sitting on the Commission to be paid a stipend. However, Cabinet advised that only five persons sit on the Commission. This reportedly resulted in the Union’s representative being excluded.
This publication was told that the Union has not taken this development lightly and is currently considering a reaction if the decision is not reversed.
While the GTU President admitted that the Union has been ejected from the Commission, he disclosed that further comment from the Union on the matter will be issued at a later time.
However, another official close to the education system, in commenting on the matter, questioned whether there was an ulterior motive behind excluding the Union from the Commission.
“How can you exclude a key stakeholder from an important process like this?” the official asked, adding “the way I see it, these people don’t seem to have any regard for the Union which is supposed to be a main partner in this whole process to get answers on the way forward.”
The COI had commenced in April with former Chief Education Officer, Ed Caesar, as the chairperson and the GTU, the private sector and other representatives fully on board.
Just last week, Permanent Secretary within the Ministry, Ms Delma Nedd, disclosed that the COI is ongoing and is expected to conclude in December.

Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine

A crucial focus of the COI is to determine how to improve the delivery of education, which is a primary task of the teachers who are represented by the Union.
“We are hoping, coming out of that inquiry, that we will have recommendations going forward,” said Nedd, as she disclosed that some of the key stakeholders to give input to the ongoing discussions are parents, guardians and the private sector. She nevertheless noted that “we are asking for everyone to come on board and give us your feedback as to how we can improve our students’ performance across the country.”
Lyte, in the month of May, while still a member of the Commission, had noted that while the Ministry should be commended for organising the COI, he was concerned whether the recommendations would indeed be implemented.
“They are finding out that quite a lot has not been happening that should have been happening. It is left to be seen what will be done with the findings of the Commission, because we can have a Commission that finds all these things happening and then nothing happens thereafter.
This is what worries the Union, because if it is you can’t deal with simple matters like teachers’ welfare, how are you going to deal with issues at a pace that would bring some satisfaction to children and teachers and the community?” Lyte had asked.
The COI into the education system is intended to provide evidence for the revision, upgrading and extension of the Ministry’s Strategic Plan.
According to Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, failure to implement the forthcoming recommendations will not be an option. “Who wants to waste time holding a whole COI, getting recommendations from serious people, and then waste their time by not implementing what is recommended? I don’t want to be part of that!”
For this reason, he noted that once recommendations are put forward, the Ministry will seek to implement them. But according to him, implementing recommendations will obviously require a number of things, costing being paramount.
“Already the Ministry of Education consumes the lion’s share of the budget (and) we just have to ensure that all of those resources that the Government puts into education… that we get real quality for what we spend,” the Education Minister had emphasised.

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