When will the Ministry of Education upgrade teachers who have Public Management degrees?

Dear Editor,

Teachers who have earned a degree in Public Management should be recognized in the teaching system.

Many teachers in the Business Departments who have a degree in Public Management have to utilise it to help students with the School Based Assessments (SBAs) and these teachers are currently not getting paid for it.

Business SBAs have changed to be more like research papers and this is where teachers with Public Management degrees have to utilize their knowledge. The Ministry of Education needs to look at the courses offered in this four year programme, which are mostly Business and Accounting courses.

How can teachers in Business Departments in Berbice improve themselves? The teachers training programme in Berbice does not offer courses in Business, and the Business programme – Public Management, offered at the University of Guyana, Tain Campus, Berbice is not recognised in the teaching system.

The teachers are very unhappy with the situation because they have to utilise the knowledge gained from the degree programme to help students, and they are not getting paid for it. Teachers who gained the degree in Public Management were allowed to do the Diploma in Education (Business Studies), and when completed, they will achieve Assistant Mistress/Master status, instead of Trained Graduate Mistress/Master status.

The Ministry of Education should consider upgrading those teachers in the Business Departments who have degrees in Public Management, since these teachers are effectively utilising their degree knowledge and deserve to be upgraded.

Yours faithfully,

Nicholette Simpson