This teacher was unjustly removed by Region 2 Education Dept.

Aug 15, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
You would agree with me that, “the worst thing than being blind is to have an eyesight without a vision.” Professionally speaking, this philosophical trend is negatively mirrored by some of the officers that functioned under the Ministry Of Education’s umbrella. Remember, the honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Winston Jordon in his last budget speech earlier this year referred to the results of CSEC, Mathematics and English Language and particular Grade Six Assessment results as “depressing”. He even emphasized this phenomenon statistically by mentioning that Math was 14% and English Language was 50%.
What were the variables that led to this kind of behaviour? Have they done a feasibility to determine the quality of teaching delivered?, the lack of text books, the condition of the schools, parental lack in education, absentee teachers, the extra lesson syndrome, disciplinary structure or any other related observations and factors?
Well if such a research was carried out in Region Two, a correlation would certainly be found via poor educational administration -precisely the Department of Education, Region Two and NCERD Office. For in the most subjective or personified manner they determined or rather choose blindly who they wanted to run the Literacy programme. Very reflective and appropriate is the saying, “Not everything that lives in water is fish”. Does the honorable Minister of Education know what is happening under her very nose? If this repugnant attitude continues, it will guarantee poisonous fruits for our young educators in the school system.
To begin with, how can they take off all the professional and experienced Nursery teachers on the Literacy team? From an educational and psychological perspective, the foundation of learning begins at infancy (Lamb Bornstein & Teri, 2002) – some psychologists agued even before birth – actual manipulative and relative information communicated in the areas of phonics and phonology are at the Nursery level i.e. the foundation for primary level! What measuring stick was used to dismiss these unique and committed educators? Kindly allow me this opportunity to share my condolences with them, since the death of Mr. Respect was buried and the unfortunate good Samaritans were not even told that their services were not needed.
Then, to negatively complicate this situation, any average Guyanese would entertain a certain prejudice view; that one of the Literacy Trainer; being the only one from another section of our cultural make-up, who possess a degree in Education, passed with honors at the noble University of Guyana and a qualified head teacher for years, was taken off the Literacy Primary team. No explanation was tendered – isn’t this rude and impertinent? Interestingly strange! What a change!
One trained seasoning Literacy Trainer on the team, challenged the decision to no avail and felt convicted for her colleague on the decision taken and resigned with immediate effect. I as a Guyanese from another section of our country and a strong believer of cultural harmony, strongly condemned this approach – we are Guyanese and should be seen as “One People”. I have known this individual as an educator at the primary level for years and I am hurt because of the subjective and haphazard way in which our educational system loosen its anchor to certain elements and drifted on apocalypse tides.
Can you imagine or force yourself to know that a person taken off the said Primary programme is back in the programme, even though she has little or no experience in literacy. This can be justified by the fact that the Riverstown Primary School output in Literacy programme was below average. If you are the Head of the Literacy team, and your school cannot perform to expectations, how can you monitor other schools whose literacy passes are above yours? Why is the Department of Education encouraging the wastage of the nation’s budget intended to promote education?
These trainers are taking home more than a million Guyana dollars nontaxable at the end of the year apart from their salaries. Of course the leader would be entitled to a Regional Literacy Officer salary as well; that is above one hundred thousand dollars per month. This is authentic information and can be justified by the finance Department of NCERD and Ministry of Education. The majority of the Primary teaching populace stand silently by because of victimization, questioning what criterion was used by NCERD or Department of Education to have the new trainers on board.
Almost all teachers were frustrated last August term, 2017 because the so called Literacy team was supposed to give on time, every school and each teacher a copy of the Comprehension passages for the various Grades. Such competency is celebrated by NCERD and Department of Education. Schools received them just in the nick of time.
If there stems a sense of favoritism by a particular officer at NCERD level and a fear of job security at Department of Education, the Minister of Education should be impartial; intervene and let the nation know that you still honor your obligation to us on the ‘good life promise’. It is our prescriptive and democratic right as Guyanese to know how our money is spent and the investment made in our children’s education.
We as teachers felt and are still feeling robbed, as the Literacy Head at Riverstown Primary School and her counterpart, another head teacher of Better Hope Primary School are out of school; they have to attend to matters at Department of Education or checking schools which therefore implied that most likely other teachers would have to do her job. Learners are robbed of instructional time.
I openly challenge the Ministry of Education to do a valid research to determine the need of schools and the criteria (qualifications, experience, input, output etc.) used to choose heads of the Literacy Team as well as some Literacy trainers on the team in Region Two. When it comes to our tax payer’s money, we work hard to earn a decent living and it is never going to be fair for others to preference. I quite agree with the quote by Aristotle, “The World is not evil, but those who stand around and allow evil to take precedence.”
Simone Huggins

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