Trainee teachers still to receive salary after 5 months

The Education Ministry has a system wherein new teachers who enter the system are made to wait three months before they are paid their first salaries. However, the waiting has been over five months for one teacher, who recently reached out to this newspaper to highlight her struggles in the system.
Having fallen in love with the job as a child, the teacher, who requested her name be withheld, said she started attending the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) last year, before she secured a job at a primary school in Georgetown. She said she was forced to leave college because of a few struggles she encountered.
Having secured a job, the teacher thought she would have been able to enjoy her career, but it has become nothing but a burden on her, as she is faced with financial troubles.
This teacher, who resides at Supply, East Bank Demerara, explained that her job requires her to make her own teaching aids as well as finance other teaching supplies for her classroom.
She noted that upon visiting one of the Ministry’s offices, she was told that there was a “mix up” with her appointment letter and there were no records of her on the pay rolls.
According to her, although she has been teaching for the past five months, she never received her appointment letter until a few weeks ago.
She explained that she was told the letter was supposed to be dropped off at 68 Brickdam, Georgetown, but it was dropped one of the Ministry’s other location on Brickdam.
Furthermore, she complained that upon enquiring about her salary, an official told her, “Probably next month”.
The teacher argued that she has been making it her duty to get to work on time every day since October, but finds the Ministry’s system exploitative.
Another teacher told Guyana Times she is facing a similar situation, as she has been working for six months without pay.
A senior Public Relations Officer attached to the Ministry, Brushell Blackman, explained to this newspaper that teachers and other staffers in the Ministry are usually made to wait after three months to be paid, since their profiles are usually processed by the Public Service Commission, which verifies documents among other things.
Blackman said he could not speak as to why those teachers have not been paid, but promised to look into the matter.