National production of teachers is not keeping pace with demand for such resource capacity, especially in the areas of maths and science, and as such, government will be seeking to recruit teachers from overseas. Dr. Roger Luncheon announced this during his post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President yesterday.
“Cabinet cleared the way for the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Education and the Teaching Service Commission, to recruit graduate teachers from overseas. The Ministry of Education explained the basis for revisiting an earlier model and identified mathematics and science subjects as the major but not the sole area to be targeted,” the HPS said.
Asked what decisions had been made about the recruitment terms for the teachers from overseas, Dr. Luncheon said these were questions that Cabinet examined.
“I would have to assume that the answers to those questions, particularly the provocative one about remuneration, were such as not to allow Cabinet to withhold its agreement for the Ministry of Education to proceed down this path,” Dr. Luncheon said.
He continued, “I don’t believe that the Ministry of Education would be expected to engage in a novel approach in terms of how the recruited teachers are paid, even what they are actually paid. Cabinet was reassured that this intervention would fall in line with what was previously established when we pursued overseas recruitment of specialist skills,” said Dr. Luncheon.
He said that the usual thing is for there to be a public invitation. “In places where, for whatever reason, the government…places advertisements seeking expressions of interest, the Ministry of Education would have set up salary scales and conditions that would be part of the response of individuals…advising that these are the conditions under which they could get a contract for x number of years and that they would be paid so much…that is standard procedure,” said Dr. Luncheon.
According to Dr. Luncheon, the Ministry of Education saw it fit to seek a change in the status quo. “Right now, teachers from overseas independently [come], their services are not procured by the government. They will come here whether they are using the Caricom CSME initiative to come, just like how we use it to leave, they come, they apply and [based on their credentials] they are appointed, accredited and posted,” he said.
He said that because of the created need for mathematics and science teachers, ‘national production’ of teacher human resources has been outstripped, hence the need to seek external teachers.
Luncheon said that the shortage of skills has been hurting the country for a long time, up to 15 or 20 years ago. “I think we had the most motley collection of non-nationals serving in the health sector,” he said, reflecting on when he returned from overseas to serve Guyana in 1980, adding that there were Haitians, Thais, Africans and other persons serving in the public sector.
“Overseas recruitment of specialist skills has been a time-tested intervention when Government is confronted with shortages; and whether the shortages have been created by outward migration or increased demand, I suspect it is a bit more multi-factorial than just outward migration. Definitely the increase in percentage of children attending primary, and those that move from primary to secondary, the provision of secondary education in regions not heretofore provided…has definitely increased the demand,” said Luncheon.