President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, Dr. Mark Lyte appears to be giving a passing grade and offering his support to the recent salary increase offer for teachers from the Ministry of Education, although the rest of the union and the wider membership have rejected the 10% offer.

During a live broadcast on Facebook over the weekend, the GTU President declared that there has been positive movement in a number of non-salary areas during the negotiations.

He boasted that no other negotiating team has been able to get the Government to increase the clothing allowance since 2006.

As a part of the package being offered by the government, Lyte explained that it was agreed that the clothing allowance for teachers will be increased from $8,000 to $15,000 per year.

Additionally, he noted that the union has also negotiated for teachers to be paid for the marking of SBAs.

A High School teacher will receive a $500 top up for each School Based Assessment they supervise and mark.

Further, the GTU President said the issue of housing for teachers was also discussed. He said the union suggested that the Ministry helps to fast track housing applications for teachers and proposed a $200M housing revolving fund to be managed by the Guyana Public Service Co-operative Credit Union so that teachers can benefit.

“So the point I am trying to make is that the Union did work with the Ministry of Education to flesh out the non-salary benefits and the salary increases,” Lyte said.

But while the Union’s executive might have agreed with the non-salary benefits, there appears to be a split among the union leaders on the percentage being offered by the government. 

The Union’s General Secretary and a majority of the General Council members are pushing for a higher increase than the 10% that has been offered.

While not directly addressing the two different positions within the Union’s executive Mr. Lyte thinks that teachers stand to benefit from this latest round of negotiations. 

He calculated that teachers who are on the higher end of the scale will receive more than $20,000 more on their salary if the 10% is accepted.

He noted that the Union was also able to get a good scholarship package for teachers from the negotiations. 

“So teachers for the first time will be receiving a scholarship to do a diploma or a Master’s in Education at the University of Guyana—that never happened before, we have always had first degrees. So a teacher can now do a diploma of a masters degrees and so there are 30 teachers who are going to be beneficiaries of post grad degrees and it will be free of cost,” the GTU President noted.

The GTU President said as part of the package, teachers who retire and wish to return to the system will be given salaries on the same scale that the left the system. Additionally, Deputy Head teachers of sixth form schools will also receive the same salary of a Head teacher.

Benefits for hinterland teachers will also be increased, according to Mr. Lyte.

“The Ministry and the Union did give a commitment that we would not put these numbers in the public but given the place where we are persons are hearing about the percentages, I thought that other aspects of the package should be shared with you” He said.

While the union was also pushing for a $25,000 health package for teachers, Lyte said a proposal and commitment was given by the Ministry of Education to partner with the Health Ministry to offer health services to teachers on specific days.

He said the union also negotiated for allowances to teachers to be tax free. The two sides are expected to meet again, at a date to be announced.

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