Teachers in Region Six (East Berbice Corentyne) were forced to queue up for long hours to collect their debuenching monies.
Some teachers spent hours away from the classrooms on Wednesday and also Thursdays at the Office of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) where the money was being paid.
Some teachers were at the venue since 10:00h on Thursday but were advised to wait since the money was not at the location. However, the money arrived shortly before 12:00h but by the time they were ready to proceed with the payout, only a few teachers received their payments.
The region has more than 2000 teachers and dozens more who are out of the system that are eligible for the payout.
Head of the Region David Armogan was asked about the disrespect meted out to teachers and as such he related that the system that was put in place to do the payout was not properly thought through
“I don’t support what is happening here… the Regional Education Officer should have made some arrangement with the REO [Regional Executive Officer] and the cash should have been sent to the respective schools to be given to the teachers”, the Regional Chairman noted.
The debunching payout was part of an agreement that the Guyana Teachers Union had with the previous administration.
Since teachers are paid based on their qualifications, this means that a teacher who has just entered the system is paid the same salary of another that has been in the system for 10 years. With the debunching payment, it is expected that teachers will be eligible for payment based on their years of service.
