“We’re working hard to give you the best environment” – President Ali to teachers

…says will introduce clerical support for teachers, day-care centres

Assuring teachers that his Administration was working hard to create the best possible environment for them, President Dr Irfaan Ali on the occasion of World Teachers’ Day saluted their work while talking about the systems the Government was putting in place.
The theme for this year’s celebration worldwide is “Transformation of Education: Starting with Teachers”. And the President, whose parents are retired teachers, said that since his Government took office two years ago, it has worked on transforming the lives of both teachers and students.
“On this very important day – World Teachers’ Day, I want to assure our teachers that your time will come, that we’re working hard to give you the best environment that you can work in; more importantly, as the years progress that you will be in a profession that you will be very proud of,” he said.
According to the President, he understands the commitment of teachers, as well as their challenges such as the number of hours spent on clerical duties. He revealed that a policy decision has been taken to provide every school with clerical support to remove the burden of record keeping from teachers and give them more time in the classroom.
In the coming year, he said the Government will also be establishing day-care centres across the country to provide much-needed support to teachers and young mothers. This initiative will also be supplemented with 86 guidance counsellors, one of whom will be posted at every school.
When it comes to the situation of trainee teachers receiving a stipend of $11,000, President Ali said that this would be revamped into a system where they were now placed on the payroll and given a salary of $80,000.
“In the last Government, what occurred is that the salaries of teachers, new teachers were based on the previous year’s salary and not the current year’s salary. I’ve instructed that this situation be corrected. As a result, more than 1300 teachers across the country will benefit when this correction is made,” the President said.

Human resource improvement
Meanwhile, the President also highlighted that an important part of development was the improvement of opportunities for teachers to advance their professional careers. So far, thousands of teachers have benefited from the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) and other scholarship opportunities in pursuit of higher education.
The system that prohibited some teachers from getting time off to train has also been removed. The removal of this system, he said, now gives the opportunity to all teachers to further their education in a format of their choice:
“More than 5000 teachers are now in training over the last two years. We’ve removed the quota system, and the removal of the quota system is because of the application of technology. The University of Guyana Education Programme has now migrated online. We have many online educational programmes for teachers, whether it’s degree programmes and diploma programmes.”
To complement this, President Ali said that the Government was working on establishing a platform to ensure there was 100 per cent access to training for all teachers across the country, making online training modules and manuals.
“We are building out the infrastructure to ensure that schools are connected, that they have data connectivity, teachers could have that connectivity also to use that technology available, deploy the technology to ensure that they’re delivering in a modern environment,” he said.
When it comes to the existing backlog in teachers waiting to receive their permanent training certificate from 2016, President Ali said that he has instructed for it to be cleared by the end of the year. Overall, he said that his Government intended to continue working closely with all teachers to ensure their growth and that of the country’s students.
“I want to take this opportunity to congratulate all teachers across our country for their continued hard work, their commitment and dedication, and their own personal upliftment as we, as a Government, work closely with them and with the sector to ensure we give them the right environment, to ensure that we give them the tools that can help them, that can aid their transformation so they can be in a better position, to be nimble, to be flexible, to adapt to this new environment in which teachers must operate,” President Ali said. (G3)