-President Ali says

IN acknowledging the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government’s mission to enhance the lives of all Guyanese, including public servants, President Dr. Irfaan Ali asserted that the government will not tolerate the manipulation of people as a “political tool” by those who hinder progress.

Following the strike action that was orchestrated by the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Dr. Ali said that the government does not need anyone to “push” them to work assiduously to better the lives of citizens, as they are already on that path.

He said: “No one needs to push this government; we are committed to this task. I come from a family of more than 30 teachers now. No one needs to convince us about doing more for our workers, farmers, teachers, nurses, doctors. This is a commitment of this government.”

Dr. Ali then went on to say: “ But what is for sure is that we cannot allow and we will not allow people to be used as pawns, people to be used as a political tool,” adding that this is being witnessed as the recent events continue to unfold.

Moreover, he did not mince his words when pointing out the damning revelations of financial unaccountability at the GTU.

The Auditor General’s Office has reported that around $2 billion, collected from teachers by the GTU, cannot be accounted for.

Commenting on this, the President remarked: “That is the situation now where this union that is totally unaccountable. This union has, what we read now, $2 billion of teachers’ money. $2 billion that could have been invested in teachers’ welfare.”

Furthermore, he did not shy away from expounding on the numerous initiatives that the government has rolled out that are focused on enhancing the lives of public servants. The President then said that by the end of the year, there will be more announcements of measures that will boost the lives of all.

According to the President, in September 2020, the government invested $700 million to correct the scales used to calculate teacher’s salaries and increases.
Additionally, an allowance of $10,000 was provided to all teachers with a university degree.

“Not only are we giving this allowance to trained teachers and trained graduates, but we are making the opportunities to teachers available in their school to earn that degree through the GOAL scholarship programme, through online teachers training programmes, through the associate degree programme,” President Ali said.

“Every teacher in the system now has a free opportunity. The government is investing on their behalf so they can upgrade their skills,” he added.

In addition to this, the government is giving $6,000 to every teacher with a postgraduate diploma and has granted a $20,000 allowance to all teachers with a master degree.
Meanwhile, an allowance of $30,000 for educators with a doctoral degree was also granted.

“All of these allowances are not just granted in an environment in which there is no opportunity to achieve all of these degrees and added qualifications.”

Other incentives to support educators who work and live in remote areas were increased by 100 per cent, moving from $9,000 to $20,000 per month.

“We went further, we had a provision of more than 3,800 scholarships to teachers…to qualify themselves and earn a higher salary. We are incentivising the system, giving teachers an opportunity to empower themselves, while at the same time incentivising them to do better for themselves, incentivising them to do better for the teaching system.”

He reminded the nation of the government’s support in seeing that every trained teacher becomes eligible to become a senior mistress/master after six years on the job.

This, he said, allows for an additional $20,000 to be added to those educators’ salaries.

“In the course of this year, in the coming years, it will get consistently better and at a more rapid pace.”

He spoke about the ongoing distribution of $3.1 billion in grants to make teaching easier.

Further, the stipend for teachers in training at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) was also increased from $10,000 to $90,000 per month.

According to President Ali, the Ministry of Education has been implementing initiatives to change the salary base of teachers by pushing more rapid promotions for educators.

In further outlining some of the initiatives undertaken by the government to support educators, President Ali highlighted ongoing discussions with commercial banks to establish a mechanism whereby teachers can access loans to support home ownership.