EDUCATION Minister Shaik Baksh yesterday announced that an increase will be paid to the Government Technical Institute (GTI) part time lecturers who have been on strike for almost two weeks.
In an invited comment, he told the Guyana Chronicle that the decision to raise the pay has been made and it was communicated to the Chairman of the GTI Board, Major General (ret’d) Norman McLean, yesterday.
Baksh said the specifics of the award will be made available today.
McLean had met with the strikers on Wednesday and they decided, collectively, that they will return to work and give policy makers the benefit of the doubt, President of the GTI Staff Association, Ms. Delphine Bakker said.
Bakker pointed out that they last received a pay hike nine years ago.
She said they are now asking for non-graduate part time staffers to be paid $1,000 per hour and for the graduate and Masters’ level part time lecturers to get $1,200 and $1,800, respectively.
Bakker agreed much teaching time has been lost and students were significantly affected because the majority of classes were not being taught and said they are committed to going the extra mile on resumption.
“We will push in more hours so that the work can be done,” she assured.
(Vanessa Narine)