MoE, GTU to meet Thursday

– to discuss gov’t response to proposed multi-year agreement

THE Ministry of Education is set to re-engage representatives of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) Thursday over the proposals made for the multi-year agreement relative to teachers’ salaries and conditions of service, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said Monday.
Harmon told reporters that Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry presented a report of the high-level committee on public education to Cabinet recently.

That report, which contains important issues, was handed over to her last month.
“You would recall that there were some recommendations made by the high-level committee; these recommendations required a response,” Minister Harmon said, adding:
“Government, at the level of Cabinet, has prepared a response to those recommendations and it is the government’s response which would be given to the Union by the minister, and there would be further discussions.”

The task force was put together last November to address salary negotiations and other issues affecting teachers. The matters addressed included non-salary issues, allowances, de-bunching and matters highlighted during the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the education sector, in addition to the GTU Multi-Year Agreement.

“Cabinet deliberated on the report, gave its responses to the recommendations, and directed that the unions be re-engaged,” he said.

“I am advised by the minister of education that a date has been set for that re-engagement, Thursday,” he added.

When the report was handed over to Minister Henry at her Brickdam office, the Education Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Vibert Welch said after three months of intense deliberations, a number of favourable recommendations had been tabled.

According to him, the recommendations made in the final report will likely attract more persons to the teaching profession, and encourage those who are already in it to remain.
The permanent secretary had said, too, that the high-level task force is optimistic that Cabinet would look favourably at the recommendations that were put forward.

The GTU, too, through its president Mark Lyte at the time had expressed satisfaction with the proposals and recommendations made in the report. Lyte said it is important that the work of teachers in the classroom is recognised, and, like Welch, he too expects a favourable response from Cabinet.

Attempts to contact representatives of the GTU for a comment on Monday were unsuccessful.

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