Dear Editor,

I NOTE, with worry and much anger, the replies of GTU President Mark Lyte and one George Cave, in the print media recently, regarding my letters in the press which highlighted the High Court actions against dozens of teachers, especially as it relates to my own preliminary promotion to Head of the English Department.I echo Cave’s call by asking the question, “What is the Education Service coming to?” Indeed, the system has become dysfunctional, as can be seen over the years; don’t you think so, Messrs Cave and Lyte? To have me, as a teacher trained in English, to have to resort to do Social Studies at the University in Berbice instead of what I had loved doing, English (because there was no English programme being offered there), what is the education service coming to?

Why should a teacher ‘waste’ four years of his life studying for a degree in an area in which he knew he might very well have no scope in his professional career at his school in the years that followed, but he still followed through because he had education and teaching at his heart and wanted to upgrade his qualifications and professional skills? What is the system coming to? What good is the system to a teacher who achieved a Grade One with distinction in the subject area in question, and was trained in English at the Teachers Training College of the Ministry of Education, only to have none of his merits considered when he applied for a subject-related (as well as administrative) position at a secondary school?

Why do we have a training college enabling teachers to specialise in subject areas, if not to equip them with a base to “organise the teaching of that specialised subject?

What is the education service coming to, Messrs Cave and Lyte? A system in which both of you had opportunities to fix or relate your displeasure in years past!
What is the education service coming to, when you have a trained English teacher, having completed a Ministry of Education course in ENGLISH that lasted for two years, but it doesn’t seem to bear any weighting to the current promotion guidelines Mr Cave alluded to?

What is the education service coming to, when you have a teacher, completing an Education Management Course which is supposed to create scope for administration and management in ANY supervisory position, but it is not even catered for in the TSC guidelines that Mr Cave checked through?
What is the system coming to when the teacher’s application for promotion last year was not his first; rather, third or so, but his application was refused year after year?

Mr Cave is questioning why my HM or Regional Education Officer did not put remarks on my application so as to have dissuaded my preliminary appointment as English HoD at Vryman’s High. I would not question that, but have this to say: those are people on the ground and in the fields to see what’s happening in education and how someone could function…they are the persons who really can tell and know if someone is truly capable of a job, because they have seen that person at work and would have first-hand knowledge of someone’s capability for a job — not the ones in their high offices in Georgetown, Mr Cave!

It’s a shame and disgrace that my “ineligibility” to head an English Department at any secondary school is coming in for lashes from the GTU head and this retired (I presume) educator, when the university has not even produced many persons with a Degree in English (no fault of my own!), but has recently begun to do so with fresh trainees out of CPCE. These would graduate in about two years, and would very well be eligible, much to the pleasure, I believe, of Cave and Lyte. And they would most likely be selected for the position over a teacher who was trained years before, graduated from University years before, and had more administrative and curriculum- based experience in the area in question! Indeed, what is our education service coming to, Mr Cave?!

I pray that by then I might not be in the system to witness the furtherance of these career-related injustices. What is our education service coming to, when we have a teacher finishing off his Master of Education degree in Education Administration of all areas — something he knew would clearly have no bearing or eligibility for the post of Head of Department which he applied for, but he still went ahead, knowing he would still gain vital skills to use in his career? Right, Mr Cave?

How sad that the teacher has been acting HoD English for nearly three years, and acted HoD again in another subject area for a number of years.

My fate already seems sealed, Messrs Lyte and Cave. This is stagnated promotion; deliberate stagnation and indirect dysfunctionality from a system that ill equips its servicemen and women for their professional careers. This is a system that creates square pegs in round holes; a system which makes me so angry regarding archaic guidelines which Cave mentioned in his missive for hiring HoDs (needing to have a degree in the subject area). This is a system which I believe must have its planners come together, meet with its stakeholders, and go back to the drawing board; a system where the training college, university, Ministry of Education, teachers’ union and the body for hiring and promoting teachers need to come together, talk, spend time with each other, and agree on a way forward that benefits all!

Any progressive-thinking education system, seeing the need for cross-specialist curriculum reach, might have recommended ways to teachers to ensure they are equipped in the area of their training at the university, even well after they had completed a degree in another area. The university needs to educate its applicants better also.

In the end, persons who are both COMPETENT and EXPERIENCED should merit their respective promotions. Finally, I believe Heads of Department are curriculum-based positions, but they are equally administrative-intensive positions, and I strongly urge a timely review of the relevant guidelines. What is your definition of eligibility, Mr Cave? Maybe your ‘traditional’ way of thinking of recruiting a HoD needs urgent review because education has changed and continues to change. Persons also require administrative skills to head a department which is, by and large, a school within a school. Maybe Mr Cave should use his influence to review the hiring of so many young and just-out-of-school teachers in the system, many of whom cannot function effectively in front of a classroom, and who cause the system to suffer further.

So I could not care less about your “eligibility criteria,” Mr Cave; many have the best degrees in sparkling subject areas and yet cannot function properly; rather, they perform POORLY! The facts are pointed out here; I would not blame the officials who approved my application in its early stages. They acted in the best of their judgment and abilities, and I, like many others of my colleagues in education who sought promotion last year, did the same. Many of us have been denied promotion for years, and we are deeply hurt by the outcome. Many of us have become victims of an “education service” that Mr Cave himself criticised.

It’s sad, too, that Mr Lyte went on a tirade against me in his reply to me in the press about my promotion, but he skimmed through and conveniently omitted the parts of my letter which bemoaned the denial of my Whitley Council emolument and also the evident delay of payments of the debunching money.
Regards,
LEON SUSERAN