–Dr Jagdeo says

AMONG the many benefits that teachers have reaped under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government, there was also a $15 billion increase in salaries and wages, according to the PPP/C General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.

He made those remarks during a press conference at Freedom House, on Thursday.

While underscoring that these figures could be verified, the PPP/C General Secretary said: “On wages and salaries itself in the education sector, how much was it in 2020? It was $24.4 billion. In 2023, the end of 2023, because we have not given the salary increase for this year as yet, it grew to $39.4 Billion.”

Adding: “So that’s a $15 billion increase… that’s a 61.4 per cent increase in allocation for wages and salaries for teachers.”

While addressing questions surrounding this, Dr Jagdeo clarified: “You would see that the across-the-board figure is lower than that and why is this so? Because we’ve hired more teachers and we have adjusted the graduate levels significantly, so that teachers who are better qualified would earn more.”

In November, President, Dr Irfaan Ali had announced increases to teachers’ salaries and other interventions. These accumulated to a total of $1.9 billion.

Providing a scenario so persons could understand how the increases would apply, President Ali had said that a graduate Senior Mistress/Head of Department would have their salaries adjusted upwards from $243,069 to $262,917, and with the inclusion of the revision to education allowances, this represents an overall 12 per cent increase compared to the previous minimum salary paid to such persons.

In the case of a graduate Senior Assistant Mistress working in the hinterland, the minimum salary was adjusted upwards from $223,232 to $243,076, and with the inclusion of the revision to education allowances and Remote Areas Incentive (RAI), this represents an overall 16 per cent increase compared to the previous minimum salary paid to such persons.

Outside of salaries and allowances, all teachers who hold a substantive appointment as a Senior Master/Mistress or above, and are within three years of retirement and have not previously received a duty-free concession on a motor car, are entitled to a duty-free concession for a motor car of up to 1500cc.

Moreover, Dr Jagdeo did not shy away from putting detractors of development in their place by underscoring how the PPP/C administration is committed to bettering the education sector.

He related: “Last week I dealt extensively with some issues surrounding the teachers’ strike and I pointed out using allocations [in] the budget, the government’s commitment to the sector and how that has grown dramatically in the past few years. Because I believe that when you assess these issues about education, you have first of all [to] deal with the question of commitment.”
Approximately $135 billion dollars was announced for the education sector in this year’s fiscal package.

According to Dr Jagdeo, the current government is investing more into the education sector when compared to the previous A Partnership for National Unity+ Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration.

“In the years that this government has been in office from 2020 to now, we have seen 162 per cent increase in the allocation to the sector. So we’re spending more on almost every single area from training of teachers… to building up the infrastructure,” the PPP General Secretary noted.

Furthermore, while highlighting the dedication that the government has placed in ensuring that the education sector reaches new heights, Dr Jagdeo remarked: “In Region One alone, we’re spending now about $5 billion on three schools, which is more than the entire capital allocation for the five years that APNU was in office.”