With a growing rift within the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) over the acceptance of the Government’s 10% salary increase offer and the inking of a 3-year agreement, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo is again accusing the General Secretary of the GTU, Coretta McDonald of playing politics on behalf of the Opposition APNU+AFC.

McDonald and a number of other GTU Executive Members have made known their displeasure with the agreement signed between the President of the GTU and the Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry.

The agreement caters for a 10% increase for teachers for this year, 8% for next year and 9% for 2026 along with non-salary benefits.

At a press conference today, Vice President Jagdeo claimed that the agreement received the go-ahead from the majority of the GTU General Council members.

He said it was the GTU General Secretary, Coretta McDonald, who attempted to derail the process.

“If you looked at it over the last couple of days, she has tried to undermine the whole general council and the agreement and APNU confirmed this that it was political direction, the issued a statement that the agreement is a bad one,” Jagdeo said today.

The Vice President said there is no doubt in his mind that the GTU General Secretary has been taking instructions from her political leaders. The GTU General Secretary is an Opposition Member of Parliament.

“As I said last week that she will continue to get instructions from Congress Place and try to sabotage the agreement and us moving forward cause her concern is not the teachers of this country and you can see the vile kind of rhetoric that she comes up with,” Mr. Jagdeo said.

But the GTU General Secretary told News Source that the Vice President should explain why she is being accused of being political with her decisions at the union, but whenever sugar workers strike, their union President, who is a Government Member of Parliament, is not accused of taking instructions from the Opposition.

In an interview with News Source yesterday, Ms. McDonald dismissed the accusations coming from the Vice President.

She said she led protests against the APNU+AFC Government and was not accused of taking political instructions then. She said teachers deserved better than the package which has been accepted by the union.

“I am not hearing Bharrat Jagdeo talking anything about my colleague Seepaul Narine who is the President of GAWU. GuySuCo and GAWU would have been on strike, and they have done that on several occasions, even during this period, while the PPP government is in office, and I have not heard anything that Seepaul Narine is taking his instructions from Congress Place or somewhere else”, she said.

The Government has urged teachers to examine the full agreement and not just pay attention to the percentage of increases for their salaries. The full agreement is still to be released.

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