Dear Editor,
I come from a family where my female siblings are teachers and nurses. As a child, I can recall my sisters having to do notes of lessons and scheme of work etc. in the evening, and also the pride they took in friendly competition among their peers relative to the performance of their students at end of term tests. I recently served as the PTA President at a Secondary School in Georgetown and I suppose I have a fair understanding of the current situation with teachers and the sometimes fractured relationship with officials of the Ministry of Education (MoE). As a matter of fact, I am acutely aware of some of the challenges because I have had to write the Minister in relation to a serious electrical matter that affected the school for years and was being ignored by Ministry officials. The issue was subsequently dealt with and they are now operating in a safer environment.
It is obvious to all that, like nurses, teachers deserve to receive reasonable remuneration. Likewise no one can deny that the recent teachers strike will pose serious challenges for the syllabus of the current term to be covered. It is not my place to cast blame on who is responsible for the prolonged impasse because we all have common sense and should be able to be rational in arriving at a sensible conclusion. The fact that the strike was discontinued after four weeks due to court-ordered mediation seems to suggest that this could have been done three weeks ago.
But let me state clearly, that I have never believed and still do not believe in across-the-board increases. It rewards underperformers and the hard working individuals striving for excellence are left in a conundrum as to whether it makes sense for them to continue working as hard. It is no secret that a high percentage of teachers go beyond the call of duty to ensure that they utilise their instruction time constructively and effectively. In some instances, they engage parents and students after hours instructing students who seek clarifications and to ensure that their tasks and assignments are completed in a timely and proper manner. Indeed they deserve a better package.
But there are teachers who are habitually late, do not spend the allotted time in their classroom, poorly manage their class and the quality of their work leaves much to be desired. It is often said that some teachers save the best of their teaching time and skills for their after school lessons which, if that is so, disqualifies them from being in the profession. For them to be rewarded with similar
remuneration as their hard working peers cannot be justified and should not happen. But across the board increases, reward these underperforming teachers with remuneration, similar to the hard working professionals, which is not fair, is demotivating and needs to be discontinued with extreme haste.
The employer (MoE) and the nation’s students deserve value for money, which is why a properly implemented Performance Appraisal system needs to be part and parcel of the current discussions between the Ministry of Information and the GTU. And do not tell me it already exists because the teachers and the GTU know fully well that it is not being properly implemented across the board at all schools. And while they are it, there must be consequences for underperforming teachers who not only fail the students but can put their hard working peers under unnecessary pressure to do remedial work as a consequence of their incompetence. It should not only be about more money, there needs to be a mechanism to monitor performance and ensure value for money with serious corrective action where and when necessary.
Sincerely,
Eric Whaul
