A year after government agreed to pay the sum as part of its agreement with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), teachers will be paid four years’ worth of Clothing Allowance as part of their September salaries.
In a memorandum dated August 12th, 2019, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education Adele Clarke directed the various Regional Education Officers to make the payment of $8,000 per annum with effect from January 2016.
In total, teachers who would have been in the system as of December 31, 2015, will receive $32,000 in the September payroll.
“Teachers who were transferred, promoted or seconded must be paid for the entire period from the Region where their salaries are paid, providing they are eligible,” the memo said.
The $8,000 allowance is part of a deal on salary increases for teachers for the period 2016 to 2018, signed between the GTU and the education ministry following nine days of strike action last year.
The parties agreed to a tiered increase of 12 per cent for junior teachers and 8 per cent for senior teachers in 2016, no increase for 2017, and an 8 per cent increase for 2018 which was applied across-the-board.
It was also agreed that a lump sum of $350 million would be made available to facilitate debunching payments for the period 2011 to 2018.
The sum has since been distributed equally across the more than 10,000 teachers within the system. Those who were employed for the entire eight-year period received $36,490.
