There are other infelicities in the TSC vacancy ad

Dear Editor,

I note the letter: ‘Closing date in Teaching Service Commission ad was an error‘ in SN of Thursday, February 2, and I thank Mr P Kandhi, Secretary, Teaching Service Commission, for his thanks.  I note that the TSC has looked at the five-week interval available and has now allocated two weeks for the HODOEs (including those in Regions 1, 7, 8, and 9) to send the original applications to central Ministry and three weeks for central Ministry to send the original applications a few metres up Brickdam to reach the TSC by the deadline of Friday, April 13, 2012.  If I had my way, I would have allocated the time the other way around. Are the excellent arrangements that former Chief Education Officer Ed Caesar put in place to have the various senior officers at central Ministry deal with the original applications on behalf of the Chief Education Officer no longer in place?

Mr Kandhi has, perhaps, not re-read the TSC vacancy ad carefully after seeing my letter in SN, and so may not have noticed other infelicities.  May I suggest, with respect, that the wording in the first sentence of Clause 8 under “Directions to be Observed by Applicants” is nonsense, and cannot be enforced.  Letters of offer of appointment go out to teachers before schools are closed for the August holidays.  Teachers cannot take up their new appointment until the new school year, hence threatening to debar them from promotion for up to three years makes no sense.  The sentence needs to have words such as: “or within one (1) month of the date for the reopening of schools (whichever is the later)“ inserted.  Further, the date (Friday, March 9, 2012) set out at the end of that Clause 8 is incorrect.  It should be Friday, April 13, 2012.

I have been in and out of the country for the past few years, and may be somewhat out of touch with some of the changes in respect of making promotions in the teaching service.  Too, as I understand it, this should be an election year in the Guyana Teachers Union, so I need to have a care over what I say in the media, lest the election campaign be affected.
I am, however, appalled at the wording in Clause 6 under “Directions to be Observed by Applicants.”  Does the TSC think that it has the authority, in industrial relations, to limit the number of vacancies for which a fully eligible teacher may apply?  Are the officials in the GTU (and its TSC nominee, too) asleep?  The TSC is there to process all applications from eligible teachers and should not be allowed to get away with this apparent attempt to cut down on its work.

I invite the Guyana Trades Union Council to look at this matter, and intervene, if necessary.

Unlike some other persons, I am not unduly bothered that some senior vacancies are not listed in the advertisement, and that some posts are listed as vacant when they are not really vacant.  That is par for the course in the teaching service.  Some of those infelicities may be corrected in the Amended Vacancy Notice that is normally published – provided that the correct information is given to central Ministry for on-passing to the Teaching Service Commission.

Yours faithfully,
George N Cave.