The President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Mark Lyte, today said the headteachers and deputy headteachers who met President Irfaan Ali at State House on Monday, were “handpicked” and had no authority to make representation on behalf of the Union or the more than 7,000 teachers that elected the executive arm of the GTU.

“Yesterday, the persons, who attended the meeting from the different education districts were hand-picked by the regional bodies, regional education departments to attend a meeting in their capacity as headteacher, in their capacity as deputy headteacher, in their capacity as senior mistress, heads of department, or just a rank-and-file teacher. None of those persons selected by the regional education offices were mandated or are mandated to represent the Guyana Teachers’ Union,” Dr Lyte said in video recorded statement on Tuesday.

He said there was no executive member of the union at the meeting.

The teachers who attended the meeting told President Ali that they prefer an increase in allowances over an increase in salaries. The position, which the President said he would consider, contradicts the union’s position for an across the board increase in salaries.

The GTU President said despite the best efforts of the union, talks between the union and the government have broken down resulting in the initiation of the process of conciliation.

“We have activated conciliation as a result of the incomplete or one may want to say the breakdown in talks as it relates to the financial matters for our teachers,” the GTU President said.

Minister of Governance, Gail Teixeira was previously mandated by President Ali to facilitate discussions on the multi-year agreement, which covers salary and non-salary issues. However, the GTU President said those talks didn’t get too far.

“What we have seen is a selection of non-salary matters being looked at, at the level of the Ministry of Education via circulars, memos, and other forms of enforcements. We continue to say as a union, there seems to be a deliberate effort to dodge the issues affecting our teachers. And to this, I want everyone to know that the Guyana Teachers’ Union did not and I emphasize, did not mandate anyone to speak on our behalf,” he explained.

Meanwhile, in a statement on Facebook, GTU General Secretary, Coretta McDonald said the union viewed with “dismay and disdain,” the secretly organised “consultation” between the president and a select group of teachers.

McDonald said the move by the President to engage is a clear sign of the government being fearful of engaging an organised union.

The general secretary also took a hit at the headteachers and deputy headteachers, who made a case for increases to their allowances and not their salaries.

She said “the Ali led government is fully aware that they cannot direct the union’s executive and offer them scripts to read from, they know too that increased allowances would not have been the high point of the meeting, since increased allowances  doesn’t add to up to the tabulations when calculating one’s gratuity and pension and that kind of utterance was baseless, short sighted and selfish, as it did not cater for the masses of teachers who are not eligible to receive these allowances neither does it cater for our stalwarts who are now retired and are receiving pension,” McDonald said.

According to the General Secretary, the meeting was a smoke screen intended to give the “fake” impression that the Government is truly concerned about the welfare of teachers.

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