In the Green Corner

Sep 16, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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By Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo
(Abridged) The Opposition leader, as is to be expected, spent a lot of time attempting to get political mileage out of the recent strike by teachers, and when it was over, he continued his inflammatory statements, pouring the proverbial gasoline on the issue hoping that the strike would be the forerunner to a general shut-down of the country.
That did not happen so his popes turned into resentment, and he was not alone. One opposition newspaper columnist (KN September 8) claimed that union leaders were “outfoxed” and “outsmarted” by the Government, and then he became bewildered as to why union leaders wore “green-coloured T-shirts” when they met with government officials to discuss the terms for the arbitrators.
GENUINE GRIEVANCES
No one ever doubted that teachers have genuine grievances, and civil society has generally been in support of them. For two weeks, some teachers stayed away from work (one week from the classroom), and pockets of picketers waxed lyrical in their chanting, “Dey wuk we like a donkey, and pay we like junkie…”
But … Not one was arrested. Not one was harassed. Not one was shot. Several observers on social media recalled the sordid and bloody episodes in Linden in 2012 when peaceful protesters were shot and three killed reportedly by police bullets. On the Essequibo Coast, they remembered the rice farmers who were tear-gassed and then hauled before the court for protesting the meager payments per bag of paddy from millers.
Therefore, after one week of strike action, the teachers’ union, GTU and the Department of Labour have agreed that the grievances would go to Arbitration and that the decision would be binding on all parties. During the arbitration period, the agreement stipulates, there would be no strike action, stoppage of work, go-slow, boycott or picketing on the part of the GTU. On the part of the Ministry of Education, there would be no recrimination, loss of pay, no lock-outs or interference in the arbitration process.
THE COALITION HAS GIVEN MORE
Both my wife, Sita, and I have been teachers and together we have served this noble profession for some 50 years. I read with a troubled heart a statement made by a union leader that our teachers had been given a better deal under the previous PPP government.
For the record, this Coalition Government gave to our teachers a then unprecedented scale of salary increases ranging in 2016 between 10 percent and six percent, and in 2017 between eight percent and six percent. The lowest paid teachers received the higher percentage increases.
Under the Jagdeo presidency when the economy was in the red, an across-the-board “full and final” seven percent was paid for 2005. The standard, miserly, “band you waist” five percent was allowed for every succeeding year between 2006 and 2015.
Having given those increases in 2016 and 2017, and explaining that government could not YET afford better, we still placed on the table an offer of $710 Million for salary increases for 2018, in addition to $200M for “de-bunching”, i.e. to rectify anomalies among the salary scales.
NON-SALARIED PACKAGE
The APNU+AFC Government has also committed to improving the non-salaried conditions of employees in the education sector as follows:-
1. Improved Monthly Qualifications Allowances
(a) Certificate in Education $4,000
(b) Diploma Education $6,000
(c) Master’s Degree $10,000
(d) PhD $30,000
2. Clothing Allowance
$8,000 from the new school year 2018/2019
3. Whitley Council Allowance
To be paid in June of the year of entitlement. Teachers will continue to receive Whitley Council Leave and Allowance every four years
4. Annual Leave
In addition to the customary Easter, August and Xmas breaks, Principals and Deputies of Technical Trade/Craft institutions are granted one month’s leave during the students’ vacation periods
5. Duty Free Concession
Teachers will be granted annual duty-free concessions for motor vehicles, ATV’s and Mountain bikes in keeping with the agreed categories and eligibility criteria
6. Scholarships
Thirty (30) teachers will continue to receive four-year scholarships to the University of Guyana. An additional 20 scholarships will be granted to teachers to pursue Science disciplines at UG
7. Hinterland and Remote Areas Incentive
Teachers and their families who serve in interior regions are given annual return fares to the coastland. Teachers in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine have received an 80 percent increase, and the 2017 incentives were increased to $9,000 and $12,000.
8. Housing Fund
The Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union are to mutually agree on a mechanism for implementation of the Housing Revolving Fund, which was first promised by the former government. If it had been implemented pre-2015, it would have accumulated about $200 Million by now.
MARKED IMPROVEMENTS
Apart from the allowances, there have been marked improvements in many education sectors including major overhauls of school buildings and rehabilitation of student and teacher facilities. Monthly stipends for teachers in training at CPCE and In-Service centres at Linden were increased in 2018, 73 percent for resident, and 53 percent for non-resident trainees.
Since taking office in 2015, the Coalition government has given free laptop computers to teachers all across the country (total 9,213). More than 5,500 teachers have received hands-on training in Basic Computer Literacy by the ICT Unit of the Education Ministry. In addition, the Data Management Authority (eGovernment Unit) has connected 153 Secondary Schools, 37 Technical and other Institutes, 123 Government Ministries and Agencies, and 175 Primary Schools. The latter was in 2018 alone.
Further, 123 Community ICT hubs were built and commissioned, and now students, teachers, retirees, youths and business people have free access to the internet.
The union should feel justifiably betrayed because the former government did not put one single dollar into the Housing Revolving Fund. The PPP DID NOT KEEP THEIR PROMISE to provide 100 house lots every year for teachers.
There is no evidence to sustain the argument that things were better off for teachers under the former government, but this Government gets the message that we have to sustain high levels of improvements for our valuable teachers.

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