Despite not agreeing to a figure for salary increases for teachers, the President of the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) Dr. Mark Lyte has revealed that the union and government have been able to settle on several pertinent non-salary benefits for educators as part of the 2024-2026 multi-year agreement.
In a live broadcast over the weekend, Lyte disclosed that the government is mulling plans to put a committee in place to fast-track the allocation of house lots to educators.
This comes on the heels of an agreement made between the union and the Education Ministry at their last meeting to discuss non-salary benefits for teachers.
This publication understands that when operational, the committee will be responsible for filtering teachers’ house lot applications, which will subsequently be submitted directly to the Housing and Water Ministry’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) for processing.
According to Lyte, GTU initially requested that the administration set aside 50 house lots in every new housing scheme for teachers, but it was revealed that the majority of the teachers in the public education system had already submitted applications.
“The Ministry did return with a document which came from housing which claimed that several in all the housing areas have been allotted land for building. That brought us to the place where we then said that the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teacher’s Union should set up a committee to treat teachers’ applications for those teachers who did not get their house lots so that we can filter the information to this committee that we will set up so that we can activate on behalf of the teacher to process,” he explained.
In addition, GTU was able to secure a 100 per cent increase in scholarships exclusive to the University of Guyana (UG) for teachers.
This will see over 70 educators securing free scholarships for Diplomas in Education and 30 securing Masters in Education through the prestigious institute.
According to Lyte, these benefits will improve the livelihoods of all teachers, and its ripple effect will see students benefitting from quality education.
“We know that a lot of teachers access the GOAL scholarships and we argued that we would like the scholarships to be exclusive to the University of Guyana in particular… that has never happened before, we have always just had first degrees, so a teacher can do a diploma or a masters degree… so, if you want to go back and do an additional degree for that one year it will be free of cost, if you want to do a masters which is over a million dollars is the cost at the University, you will be able to do that free of cost,” Lyte said.
Further, non-salary benefits also include a payment of $500 per child per marking of each School Based Assessment, payment of Deputy Principals of 6th Form School the salary of the Headteacher of an ‘A’ Grade School, and return airfare to the coast for teachers based in the hinterland as well as their spouse and children younger than 18 years, increase in Remote Areas Incentive (RAI) from $20,000 to $23,000.
He said that while GTU and the Ministry of Education did not agree to increase the $10,000 allowance for holders of first degrees, the government offered a GY$2,000 increase in the existing allowances for holders of Masters Degrees and Doctorates, and a GY$1,000 increase in the allowance for holders of the Certificate in Education and a GY$1,000 or GY$2,000 hike for those with an advanced certificate.
Clothing allowance has increased from $8,000 in 2006 to $15,000 instead of the union’s demand for $25,000; the $5,000 station and hard-lying allowances would be increased by 17 per cent.
Moreover, the GTU and the Education Ministry further reached an accord on creating a position of a Master Teacher, who’s next could be a Head of Department or a Senior Master but opts not to apply for that position and instead remains in the classroom and receives the salary of either of those positions.
The two sides also agreed in principle that retired teachers would receive the salary of the position at which they retired, rather than a lower salary that would affect their National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pension.
The GTU had demanded a $25,000 health check-up allowance, but Dr. Lyte said that “did not happen” and the government, instead, offered to collaborate with the Health Ministry to organise health booths in each region for tests and evaluations to be done.
The Ministry of Education had offered teachers a 10 per cent across-the-board salary increase for 2024, 8 per cent for 2025, and 9 per cent for 2026. This was, however, rejected.
Initially, GTU proposed 39.5 per cent for 2024 and 30 per cent for 2025 and 2026, respectively. It has since indicated that its members are willing to accept a 20 per cent increase across the board.
In his weekly press conference, Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo reasoned that the government’s 10 per cent salary increase proposal for teachers would see them earning $12 billion in three years.
But the GTU, though its membership is divided on the offer, has rejected it.
Nevertheless, Jagdeo contended the government’s offer is a good one, noting that the government already spends approximately $40 billion on teachers’ packages per year.
