President Ali announces as consultation held with country’s educators

SPECIAL housing loans and other support will be available to teachers across the country, President Dr. Irfaan Ali announced on Monday.
During a consultation with headteachers and their deputies from the country’s 11 school districts at State House, the President outlined the government’s plans to assist those teachers who would have already acquired land, but cannot build due to limited funds.

“I can ask the CEO (Chief Education Officer) to check for all the teachers who would have had allocations made to them, but they do not have the bank loan, or the bank is giving them a hard time, and we will deal with that as a category,” the President said.

Meanwhile, teachers already in the process of building will receive assistance with materials, such as steel and cement, to subsidise their financing.
The government, he said, will engage the country’s banking institutions to facilitate the process.
Loans from $15 million, with an interest rate of 3.75%, will be accessible to teachers.

“Within two weeks, we will move to have this big-tent approach, where we will have the banks… We will get the list of teachers, we will tell you all that you have to walk with; we will get everything pre-approved, so when you come, you sign your loan off,” President Ali said.
Additionally, teachers will be provided with the option to access other support such as building plans.
“We will help you with designs that we have at housing for different sizes of houses, if you want to use that design to save that cost also, and as far as possible, we will try to expedite the approval of the NDC levels and so on,” he added.

Monday’s consultation was held in keeping with the President’s promise to meet with educators to address a number of issues within the sector.
Teachers from both the hinterland and coastland regions raised a plethora of issues, among them salary and allowance adjustments for teachers, better school infrastructure, the need for more qualified teachers, improved Internet access, better transportation for children, especially those living in the hinterland region, implementation of more innovative programmes, and overcrowding in several schools.

Responding to the teachers’ concerns, the President said: “We are going to complete the infrastructure audit of all the schools and all the education facilities, including the recreation facilities across the country, so we will have a gap analysis as to what has to be done, and prioritise where we are going to definitely address those issues.”

With regards to overcrowding, specifically, the president noted that the government will prioritise the extension of schools affected by overcrowding in the upcoming budget cycle.
Existing anomalies affecting minimum-wage teachers will be corrected in their salaries this month.

Meanwhile, some 2,300 new and qualified teachers will be entering the system soon, and will be dispatched across the country to satisfy the need for more trained teachers.
In the coming weeks, the government will develop a holistic approach to address all the needs of the country’s teachers.

“Now that I have a full understanding directly from you,” President Ali said, “I am in a better position to come up with a holistic approach as to how we will deal with the welfare of students and teachers together.”

Executive representatives from the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and other government officials such as Education Minister Priya Manikchand, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, and the country’s Labour Minister were in attendance.