‘Mistreatment of teachers will eventually drive them away’ – GTU’s McDonald

Mar 28, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – The continued mistreatment of teachers will eventually drive them away to greener pastures, General Secretary of the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) Coretta McDonald has said.

McDonald’s comments come even as the Government of Guyana announced a move to recruit over 500 healthcare workers from Bangladesh to fill the country’s shortage. The decision to recruit the Bangladeshi workers comes at a time when the government is refusing to raise the salaries of local nurses, forcing hundreds of them to take up lucrative jobs in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

In an invited comment, McDonald asserted that if the government is not careful, it will contribute to another mass exodus of more public servants. “This time,” she said “it is the teachers who will be leaving for greener pastures, or at least to where they can find pastures that are green.”

“You see our teachers are most valuable but they are not being regarded as such. All they want is to be paid livable salaries so they can offset the expenses that come with the rising cost of living. However, our government is blatantly ignoring their cries and because their concerns are not being heard then they will take their services elsewhere,” explained the GTU General Secretary.

McDonald warned too that unlike the health sector, finding suitably skilled replacements for teachers will not be as straightforward. “Unlike the health sector where the skills are universal, and the Government can sign some deal to recruit worker from a place as far as Bangladesh, finding qualified teachers will not be as easy because even if they go as near as in the Caribbean or far as the Middle East, they will not find persons willing to work for what they are paying teachers here.”

“Most of the teachers in the English-speaking Caribbean are being paid double and triple what teachers earn in Guyana, so they won’t come here. And if they Government should go beyond that they will encounter many issues to find trained and experienced teachers to replace those who leave because they will face issues like language barriers and so forth.”

To this end, McDonald said the Government should take into keen consideration how they are handling teachers. “Everyone saw what played out with the efforts to achieve collective bargaining for better salaries and the Government has been stubborn, not willing to address concerns of its teachers. As a result, Guyana will end up losing a lot of them and then the nation’s children will suffer. I hope they are able to remove from their stubborn position and treat teachers with a little more respect, and then they may be a different ending” McDonald asserted.

At the end of 2023, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) the country’s main referral hospital, had a deficit of about 600 nurses to meet its needs and achieve industry standard.

Just last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that it approved Sigma Engineers Ltd., a Bangladeshi recruitment agency to recruit healthcare workers, with the view to addressing concerns raised both by the public and private sectors on the severe skills shortage in the health sector. The Ministry explained in a statement that “The Private Sector Commission has on numerous occasions requested the Government’s assistance in addressing the need to fill the skills shortages not only in the health sector but also in the critical sectors of construction, engineering, and services given the expansion and growth of Guyana’s economy.”

“In this regard, the recruitment agency was appointed to liaise with relevant authorities from various countries to recruit healthcare workers including, but not limited to Bangladesh. It is within this context that the authorization letter was issued by the Ministry to prevent issues such as human trafficking or any abuse of this process,” the statement added.

The ministry said to date, no one has been recruited through Sigma Engineers Ltd. Inc. as shortages are currently being filled by personnel from Cuba. “The Government of Guyana remains open to the recruitment of specialized skills which do not currently exist in Guyana from any part of the globe, for both the public and private sectors,” the statement concluded.

Government in recent times have been recruiting nurses from Cuba and other countries and reportedly paying them more than their local counterparts.

Sigma Engineers Ltd. Inc. was given the approval as the recruitment agency in a letter dated February 5, 2024. In the letter which was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd, the government confirmed that Sigma Engineers Ltd as the agent to do the recruitment of 500 Bangladeshi healthcare workers for employment and liaise with the relevant authorities.

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• greener pastures, GTU, migration, recruitment, teachers

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