Following a High Court decision yesterday after 16 months of legal wrangling, teachers across the nation who were eligible for promotion in the 2015 school year will be able to have their applications reviewed in a fresh process.
Chief Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards yesterday made absolute the Order Nisi granted to the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) by then Chief Justice Ian Chang in July, 2015, calling on the Teaching Service Commis-sion (TSC) to “assess all applications for promotions in the Teaching Service afresh for the year 2015.”
It is a victory which for the GTU has been long in coming but is sweeter still for the vindication it brings. “GTU is rejoicing,” General Secre-tary Coretta McDonald told reporters after the ruling.
McDonald stressed that a process which could’ve taken two or three weeks had to take more than a year because the Leila Ramson-led TSC was too stubborn to listen to teachers.
“It took a judge to say to it was not done properly. Yet this is what the teachers through the GTU have been saying: it was not properly done so we have to have it redone.
But she [Ramson] thought she knew best, so here it is a Judge had to correct her and say what you and your commission would have done, it was not properly done so you need to re-do it now,” she added.
The order granted by the High Court also deems the 2015 preliminary promotion list for public school teachers “unlawful, ultra vires, irrational, unreasonable, wholly in excess of jurisdiction, unreasonable, null, void and of no legal effect, in breach of the Teaching Service Commission Rules, in breach of and a denial of the principles of Natural Justice and legitimate expectations and ultra vires in breach of the Teaching Service Commission Act, Cap 39:07.”
In July, 2015, the preliminary promotion lists, prepared by the TSC and the Ministry of Education’s School Board Secretariat, were made public. Those promotions were, however, stalled when the GTU secured an injunction to prevent the two bodies from producing finalised lists. Based on the GTU’s application,
Chang had ordered the TSC and the Minister of Education, respectively, to assess all applications for the 2015 promotions. These bodies were asked to show cause why the appointments should not be deemed unlawful.
The intention of the injunction, the union has previously stated, was to have the two bodies review the list. In November, 2014, the School Board Secretariat withdrew from the court action and agreed to settle the matter out of court; the TSC has, however, consistently refused to do the same.
According to the TSC, which is chaired by Ramson, it followed “set criteria and principles” in the exercise.
Applicants for promotion within the teaching service are scored on the basis of their experience, qualifications and performance appraisal grades.
The TSC, however, in determining suitability, has also been taking into account the comments of Head Teachers, District Education Officers, Regional Education Officers and Assistant Chief Education Officers.
The commission has argued that these comments provide more “insightful details” on the applicants’ performance and are, therefore, “vital” to the decision-making process.
The GTU, however, argues that these comments make what should be an objective process subjective. It has also argued that several individuals who have not acquired enough points within the objective point system were being promoted based on the strength of these comments.
In the face of these concerns, the TSC has argued that the process used to review applications in 2015 is the exact process that had been applied for many years and that during the senior promotion exercise a GTU nominee is always present. It stressed that the GTU nominee who sat with the TSC during the 2015 promotional exercise raised no objection.
However, the GTU yesterday thanked its nominee, Avril Crawford, whose vigilance made the union aware of an issue which has gone undetected for almost 20 years. “For the last 20 years or so, our teachers have suffered and we are elated that justice has been served and they will no longer have to do so,” GTU President Mark Lyte said.
According to Lyte, the union has not forgotten those teachers who would’ve reached retirement age during the court process and thus would’ve retired without benefits due them.
“Teachers, we asked you several months ago to trust us and today we are vindicated. We intend for no teacher to lose what was due them. We intend for no teacher to lose any service or remuneration that is due them so just as we pursued this aggressively, we will pursue justice for those teachers in due time,” Lyte explained.
Based on submissions by lawyer Roysdale Forde on behalf of the teachers, the TSC has also been ordered to pay $100,000 to the union in court costs.
Contacted yesterday for a comment on the court’s ruling, Ramson said that the commission would not be making a comment until such time as it meets to discuss the ruling. This meeting is scheduled for some time next week.
