Negotiations for a new wages pact are ongoing be-tween the Education Ministry and the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), and several recommen-dations have alreadybeen made for added in-centives and benefits. However, Education Minister Shaik Baksh told this newspaper in a recent interview that the GTU would have to present their demands to the ministry, so that a decision can be made as to what benefits would be attached to the new package of agreements.Baksh explained that the negotiations are still ongoing, and could not have met the October deadline since there are many other topical is-sues to discuss. awaiting the GTU’s ne-gotiation report.Meanwhile, com-menting on the issue of teachers’ migration,raised by the GTU in an article which appearedin this newspaper last month, Baksh said that the GTU has been doing some ‘guessing.’He stated that the ministry has not encoun-tered any major or sub-stantial decline in teach-ers at schools. Baksh said it is an annual trend for a few teachers to leave without informing the ministry. However, he mentioned that there has not been any substantial number leaving, and this aca-demic year is no different from the previous years. The education minis-ter stressed that if the secondary schools across the country. Baksh not-ed that there are some initiatives the ministry hopes to ‘roll out’ in or-der to deal with the issue ‘once and for all’. In an effort to address the shortage of science teachers, Baksh revealed, some of the ministry’s plans for specialisedteachers were unveiled at a one-day workshop hosted last Thursday at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).These plans in-clude arrangements to subsidise the cost of at-tending the University of Guyana (UG). There are also planned incentives for those who producesuccessful science stu-dents at the CSEC exam-inations. He told Guyana Times that negotiations are ex-pected to be lengthy, as it may take weeks or even months before they are made final. But the possibility exists that, should a new agreement be reached, benefits would be received as ear-ly as January 2011. The education minister add-ed that the agreement has no specific deadline, but the ministry is still GTU wants to argue that teachers’ migration has increased since this aca-demic term, they would need to get their statis-tics to prove what they are saying is the truth.The education minis-ter, however, admitted that there have been ma-jor challenges in sustain-ing and retaining spe-cialised teachers in the areas of science, phys-ics and mathematics in The education minis-ter said that the ministry is expected to ‘roll out’ a new national science, technology and innova-tion policy. Baksh said, too, that stronger em-phasis will be placed on the development of well resourced, state-of-the-art science laboratories in schools. These pro-visions, he said, will be provided for in the 2011 budget.
Teachers wages pact may take until 2011 – Baksh
Negotiations for a new wages pact are ongoing be-tween the Education Ministry and the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), and several recommen-dations have alreadybeen made for added in-centives and benefits. However, Education Minister Shaik Baksh told this newspaper in a recent interview that the GTU would have to present their demands to the ministry, so that a decision can be made as to what benefits would be attached to the new package of agreements.Baksh explained that the negotiations are still ongoing, and could not have met the October deadline since there are many other topical is-sues to discuss. awaiting the GTU’s ne-gotiation report.Meanwhile, com-menting on the issue of teachers’ migration,raised by the GTU in an article which appearedin this newspaper last month, Baksh said that the GTU has been doing some ‘guessing.’He stated that the ministry has not encoun-tered any major or sub-stantial decline in teach-ers at schools. Baksh said it is an annual trend for a few teachers to leave without informing the ministry. However, he mentioned that there has not been any substantial number leaving, and this aca-demic year is no different from the previous years. The education minis-ter stressed that if the secondary schools across the country. Baksh not-ed that there are some initiatives the ministry hopes to ‘roll out’ in or-der to deal with the issue ‘once and for all’. In an effort to address the shortage of science teachers, Baksh revealed, some of the ministry’s plans for specialisedteachers were unveiled at a one-day workshop hosted last Thursday at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).These plans in-clude arrangements to subsidise the cost of at-tending the University of Guyana (UG). There are also planned incentives for those who producesuccessful science stu-dents at the CSEC exam-inations.
He told Guyana Times that negotiations are ex-pected to be lengthy, as it may take weeks or even months before they are made final. But the possibility exists that, should a new agreement be reached, benefits would be received as ear-ly as January 2011. The education minister add-ed that the agreement has no specific deadline, but the ministry is still GTU wants to argue that teachers’ migration has increased since this aca-demic term, they would need to get their statis-tics to prove what they are saying is the truth.The education minis-ter, however, admitted that there have been ma-jor challenges in sustain-ing and retaining spe-cialised teachers in the areas of science, phys-ics and mathematics in The education minis-ter said that the ministry is expected to ‘roll out’ a new national science, technology and innova-tion policy. Baksh said, too, that stronger em-phasis will be placed on the development of well resourced, state-of-the-art science laboratories in schools. These pro-visions, he said, will be provided for in the 2011 budget.
