Setback of teachers’ promotion irks Union

Mar 22, 2017 News

A mere two weeks remain before this school term comes to an end, but the process of teachers’ promotion within the public education system is yet to be completed.

GTU President, Mr. Mark Lyte

According to information out of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), which is tasked with undertaking the process, had committed to completing the task before the school terms concludes.
GTU President Mark Lyte is worried that the delay may be a deliberate tactic to “get back” at the union.
In November of last year, Chief Justice (ag) Yonette Cummings Edwards ruled that the TSC must review its process of promotion for the period 2015.
This followed on the heels of months of prolonged delay to the process caused by a court matter that was set in motion by the GTU, which initially filed an injunction to halt the process, against the background that there were concerns with how the preliminary list was derived.
The mandated review commenced earlier this year.
According to Lyte, since the union was given observer status, it is aware that the TSC had completed interviews for the promotions of Head teachers for Grade A and B Schools. But moves to continue the process of promotions for head teachers of Grade C, D and E, along with deputy head teachers, heads of department and senior masters and mistresses, have from all indications been stalled.
While the latter promotions do not require interviews, this publication understands that it does require a meeting of the Commission to exam a spreadsheet of factors which the applicants are graded against, helps to guide the members of the Commission to choose the best possible applicants for the respective positions.
But according to Lyte, the Union’s Observer, Mr. Lancelot Baptiste, has not been invited to continue the process.
“We are not aware that the Commission has met to deal with those promotions…We are saying that two weeks remain for school to be closed and to date we have not been told otherwise,” said a concerned GTU President.
According to him, the Union is extremely concerned that “we have not been informed officially when they are going to be restarting this process. We are concerned that the [school] term is coming to an end, and there seems to be a lack of movement as it relates to getting the job done to ensure that those persons are prepared and ready to take up their positions, and we consider that to be a deliberate delay tactic utilised by the Teaching Service Commission to stall the process.”
After the TSC completes its review, it will then be required to publish its preliminary list of promotions. The list is usually available at the TSC’s Brickdam, Georgetown office for the following two weeks for perusal by teachers eligible for promotions and gives them the opportunity to issue any challenge.
“This is likely to take about three weeks at the least,” said Lyte, who continued his lamentation by pointing out “we are not seeing anything happening and the [school] term is almost over…we had a commitment that teachers would have been started the new term in their new positions, but the way things are going it is not likely that this will happen.”
The Union is particularly concerned about this development, Lyte said, since it was anticipated that the 2017 advertisement of vacancies and subsequent promotions would be done in time for teachers to take up another set of appointments by September.
“So we are expecting two sets of promotions this year – 2015 and 2017. Now if the TSC can’t complete the 2015 backlog since they are moving at snail’s pace, then the Union is worried about how they will do interviews in time for the September promotions.” Lyte stated.

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