CUT seeking CARICOM’s intervention to have teachers paid for marking SBAs

Aug 16, 2017 News

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The struggle continues for teachers to be financially compensated for marking School Based Assessments [SBAs] for the Caribbean Examinations Council [CXC] – administered Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate

[CSEC] exams. Steering the move in this regard is the Caribbean Union of Teachers [CUT].

CUT is a federation of teaching trade unions in the Caribbean, of which Guyana is a member.

Representing Guyana at CUT is General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union [GTU], Ms Coretta McDonald, who was elected CUT’s Third Vice President in 2015.

The issue of payment for marking SBAs has been one that CUT has been giving close attention. In fact, McDonald disclosed that at CUT’s most recent conference in St Lucia a few weeks ago, the issue was up for discussion. She noted that since there has been no change in terms of teachers being paid.

“We are planning to have a meeting with CARICOM. They are going to have us as part of the meeting when they meet with the Ministers of Education [of the Caribbean]. We are taking this approach because CXC is saying it is not their thing to pay our teachers; they are saying that it is the respective government that should be paying the teachers and not them.”

McDonald disclosed that CXC has even been supportive of CUT reaching out to CARICOM in order for a meeting to be organised with the Caribbean Ministers of Education to have the payment issue further ventilated.

“We are going to wait to see where that is going to take us, but we are still having our teachers on the alert in terms of that,” said McDonald as she added, “The teachers are going to allow the SBAs to go, but in terms of marking the SBAs that is what is going to be the contention.”

The CUT Vice President noted that addressing the payment issue is particularly imperative. She explained that while in the past the teachers were only tasked with marking SBAs for a few subjects, the workload in this regard has since increased.

“Our teachers have more work added now. They are being asked to mark SBAs for other subjects that didn’t have this component in the past. For now we are asking our teachers to oversee, but they are not actually marking… but we know that we may not have everybody on board…I guess when the fire starts spreading and the heat starts catching on, all of our  teachers are going to take a definite stand,” McDonald theorised.

The payment issue, she revealed, was one that first gained traction in Barbados before it moved on to Jamaica and eventually caught on in some other Caribbean territories and Guyana.

“It is not an easy battle, but we will continue to push to ensure that teachers are justly rewarded for the jobs that they perform,” McDonald had declared since earlier this year when asked to comment on the matter.

McDonald had intimated even then that CUT was convinced that CXC had the financial wherewithal to pay.

“When you look at what is happening now, CXC is making huge sums of money. As a matter of fact CXC has started e-marking, which will cost them far less, because they don’t have to pay for accommodation and meals and all of that for persons anymore, so they have the money to pay.”

Against this background, McDonald said that CUT was determined to continue its advocacy for teachers to be paid. “We will continue to push our Ministers of Education and our Governments to look into this matter.”
At the local level, she disclosed that the GTU has had discussions with at least two Ministers of Education.

McDonald is, however, concerned that the CXC territories have failed to adopt a united approach to deal with the payment matter thus far. She added, “While some territories are saying that they are going to take on the responsibility for paying the teachers, others are saying we are not going to do that, and I think that is where the problem is. Some are for it and some are against it; no decision has been arrived at.”

“It is quite unfair, because there are other people who invigilate other aspects of the examinations and are paid to do so, but teachers who are manning the entire process and completing the projects are not being paid at all,” McDonald stressed.
According to her, “Teachers are saying ‘for too long we have been taken for granted.’ We know that it can have an adverse effect on students, but what teachers are prepared to do is to help complete the process but refuse to mark. When CXC sends for the samples, the teachers will just send them without putting any scores to them…let them (CXC) do the scoring.”
However, McDonald noted that CUT is optimistic that the upcoming meeting with CARICOM will pave the way for a decision that will be in favour of payment for the teachers tasked with marking the CXC SBAs.

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