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Education Ministry, GTU need to address teachers’ appointment – Coretta McDonald
(Kaieteur News) – President of the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) Coretta McDonald on Friday said that there is need for a meeting between the officials of the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) to address the appointment of teachers and their promotions.
McDonald was asked on Friday by reporters to say her union’s approach to the backdating of appointments as well as what compensation it will seek via Teaching Service Commission (TSC) relative to teachers who required during the period there were no promotions.
President of the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) Coretta McDonald.
The GTU head said that the union believes there should be at least two promotions this year to compensate teachers who were not promoted over the last three years. She disclosed that the GTU has written both the minister of education and the TSC requesting a meeting.
McDonald said that the TSC will not act until the GTU and the Ministry of Education meet to examine collectively the list of vacancies and sure it is seamless. She explained that both parties have to agree on whether there will be changes to the criteria for promotions after which a directive will be sent to the TSC for action.
“So, the longer the ministry delays the meeting with the Guyana Teacher’s Union, it means that our teachers are going to be in jeopardy again, and many more teachers will retire not being able to attain positions that they longed for,” she stressed.
Further, the GTU president said that on the matter of renumeration packages, President Irfaan Ali will have to be directly consulted since neither the Chief Education Officer nor the Permanent Secretary are able to address the matter.
“We did that before writing his excellency… requesting to have a meeting with him, and we listed a series of issues that we wanted to discuss. That too has not been responded to favorably…you’re talking about the compensatory pack for retired teachers… retired educators. We’re talking about delayed promotions; we spoke about the agreement and we spoke about regular meetings. Those were the issues that were sent to his excellency,” she revealed.
McDonald said she is disappointed about Minister of Education Sonia Parag’s non-response to the Union’s letter to her requesting an urgent meeting following her recent appointment.
She said the union also wrote the Chief Education Officer requesting a meeting but no date has been agreed upon.
“The PS was also written to reference the agreement that was signed in 2024. To date, we have not been able to meet with them. But you know what is strange? The ministry would write to the GTU requesting our presence when they have consultations, when they want something else to be done. But to deal with matters that are of interest to our teachers, they’re not so inclined to do that,” McDonald lamented.
The GTU president said that teachers’ interests are not being placed first but instead officials of the Ministry of Education are focused on personalities.
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