Guyana’s President Ali praises teachers’ hard work, dedication to molding minds

Guyana President Irfaan Ali on Wednesday commended educators for their hard work and dedication to molding the minds of the country’s future leaders as Guyana joined the rest of the world in celebrating teachers’ day.

The President noted that the transformation of the education system rests heavily on teachers being equipped and capable of meeting the growing aspiration of the education system. “Here in Guyana our teachers continue to work hard in building a system… working in a system that delivers the best possible results for our country and for our students,” he said in a live broadcast to honour the nation’s teachers.

The Head of State noted that his Government continues to work closely with teachers and the education sector, providing the necessary tools and appropriate opportunities to support development. Ali said that his administration, since assuming office on August 2, 2020, has embarked on an aggressive campaign to improve the working environment and conditions for teachers.

The President noted that as part of the personal upliftment opportunities made available to meet the country’s future education capability, almost 2,150 teachers are currently undertaking various programmes being offered through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarship initiative. “An important part of the development of our human resource is opportunity to advance their professional career…, and this is an opportunity that never existed,” Ali said.

It was disclosed that more than 2,500 teachers across the country were granted the chance to pursue higher education, a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or even a PhD. The Head of State stressed that more than 5,000 teachers were in training over the last two years, explaining that due to the large number of applications, the use of technology had to be considered.

As such, education courses which are offered by the University of Guyana (UG) were made available to teachers online. Further, the education sector budget has earmarked over $500M GUY for the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) to go fully online with its teachers’ training programme in 2022.

Ali pointed out that significant achievement to date forms part of government’s wider plan to ensure teachers have 100 per cent access to high quality training. “One important development over the last two years is also a situation in the past where trainee teachers were given a stipend of $11,000GUY. That system has been removed… trainee teachers are placed on the payroll itself … What they have seen is a movement from $11,000GUY to $80,000GUY per month,” Ali said.

The President noted that when his goovernment started governing it also met a system where new teachers’ monthly earning matched the previous and not the current year. “I’ve instructed that this situation be corrected, as a result, more than 1,300 teachers throughout Guyana will benefit when this correction is made as a result of what took place in the last government,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ali announced that some 86 Guidance and Counselling Officers have been deployed to secondary schools across Guyana to provide academic, personal, and career advice to students, among other major duties. President Ali noted that the professional therapists will assist teachers in molding the minds of the nation’s children.

“In every secondary school we want to have guidance and counselling officers to support our teachers, and we have already deployed to 86 secondary schools across our country,” Ali said. The Guyanese leader pointed out that with the expansion of the welfare department at learning institutions across Guyana, students’ skills will be better examined to build their self-esteem for success in their future endeavours.

Ali added too that his administration wants each school to have sufficient clerical support to give teachers their full time to extend knowledge to students.