First set of teachers benefit from house lots in Region 3

TIMES INT'L

Five teachers were recently given house lots, through the Teachers’ Housing Revolving Fund, sponsored by the government of Guyana and the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU). This is according to GTU General Secretary Coretta McDonald.
The GTU official told Guyana Times International on Monday that this recent development was a positive sign that the long-awaited project will become fruitful. McDonald said the union was looking to meet with officials from the education and housing ministries to fully activate the project.
The Guyana Bank for Trade, Industry and Commerce (GBTI) and Republic Bank are facilitating the loan process, whereby teachers will be able to access a soft loan of Gy$2 million to help construct their homes.
McDonald, however, admitted that both the GTU and government took a long time to resolve the fund’s issues, which should not have been the case.
She said it was not the union’s intention to delay this process further, but explained that all the necessary arrangements had to be made to ensure that the project was done successfully.
The GTU has said that such incentives and benefits will help to keep Guyana’s teachers here.
President Donald Ramotar in April, during GTU’s third biennial delegates’ conference, assured teachers that government was committed to fulfilling the teachers’ multi-year incentive package and to fixing the glitches that have dogged the process.
Ramotar said some of the unresolved issues will be ironed out. Under the 2006-2010 package, Gy$40 million was to be placed into the housing fund annually for the life of the agreement, putting the total allocation at Gy$200 million. The union has already shortlisted some 100 teachers who have been waiting for years now to benefit from this agreement.

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