THE Ministry of Education still has a situation in which teachers, the core group in the sector, are dissatisfied with the selection process for promotion at senior levels.This was disclosed during the ongoing Public Service Commission of Inquiry (CoI) when Permanent Secretary (PS) within the Ministry of Education Delma Nedd, took the stand Tuesday.
The PS pointed out that the concerns are current since appointments are now being done through careful processing.
Each education officer within the various regions sends to the level officer a vacancy list, that list is sent to the Chief Education Officer. A (combined) national list is then formed… When appointments are made, there would be a little rift as to who gets a promotion which is based upon seniority, she explained.
An appointments committee would then sit and examine the appointments. Teachers, she noted, are appointed through the Teaching Service Commission.
In terms of the heavy content of the teacher’s responsibilities, vis-a-vis those of the public servants, Nedd said the teachers’ responsibilities have increased because of the “incremental” status of the group termed the “focal point of education”.
Nedd thinks that “from the outset, the teachers’ salary (even though teachers should be earning more), start at an advantage”. Meaning, if someone [has] just graduated from the University of Guyana and decides between [going] to be a public officer or a teacher, in being a public officer, one has a job but the minimum scale there might be $76,000 (on average).
“A teacher can get to a school with a degree and start off at about $131,000,” she explained.
However, at the lower end of the scale, “We increase salaries based on the teacher’s status as teachers can be upgraded… Our teachers do become qualified as they attend the training college. They then can become a trained graduate (teacher) by going to the University of Guyana…” She went on to explain that there’s always a clear path for the teacher, but the public servant unfortunately has to start at a scale and if not promoted, that’s it.
“You don’t have that incremental kind of status or provision within the public service” so the options, she thinks are better off for the teacher.
Recalling the well-publicised case of former Chief Education Officer (ag), Genevieve Whyte-Nedd, Chairman of the Commission Professor Harold Lutchman asked if there has been similar situations during her employment as PS.
Though Nedd said she was not employed in the post during the time, she cited issues where ministers would have made irrelevant decisions, leaving the PS at a loss.
The PS had concerns when ministers went ahead and made decisions that weren’t appropriate and you [PS] “have to decipher how to address it, whether to bring closure to it and how to do so.”
To resolve such issues she refers to guidelines and with the minister’s knowledge, she would refer to the Ministry of Finance, if it is a financial matter.
“I don’t keep secrets. I say specifically what is the situation before us and how we deal with it… And then of course you have the regulation to say if it’s a description, if it suits the description, if it wasn’t in the budget, whether you would have treated it as an unpaid, if it’s something that would have already gone ahead, you look to see if it was an emergency. So it has to do with the condition within which such situation would have arisen.”
Nedd agreed when Lutchman said some ministers make mistakes because they “do not know the requisite law” under which their actions or decisions apply, and added that regular conversations and guidance of ministers is necessary by Permanent Secretaries. PS Nedd has served three ministers with different styles.

By Shauna Jemmott