REFERENCE is made to the comprehensive letter from my very special colleague, Mr. E. B. John, of 6th September, titled: “Rewards for Success” in which he compares the salary structures between the Public Service and the Teaching Service. Through the accompanying tables Mr. John rightly underscored the contrasting financial disadvantages portrayed for the teachers, which are exacerbated by the lack of any “official commendation” for the reported “gloated achievements” in the recent examination results in public schools: And, as if to add insult to injury, “official commendation” was profusely showered on the “administrators of education”.
I now wish to add that the situation described by Mr. John is indeed more acute when one compares the current salary scales of teachers with the compensation (and benefits) of other categories of staff in the private sector, for whom the required competencies, responsibilities, outputs, decision-making, consequences of underperformance and other related compensable factors are significantly less than for counterparts in the teaching profession. When we add to this the anachronistic management style which the Chief Education Officer has promised to subject our hapless teachers (ref. my recent letter to the editor), then we cannot but feel very concerned about the quality of our education system and the future generation of Guyanese.

NOWRANG PERSAUD