| – appeals for swift re-assessment of applicationsHaving won a recent court matter against the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) to have the 2015 teachers’ promotion lists reviewed, and to ensure that an unbiased approach to the process is maintained, the GuyanaGTU members at yesterday’s press conference. From left: Jacqueline Douglas, Mark Lyte and Coretta McDonald.Teachers’ Union (GTU) is hopeful that professionalism can prevail. This is in light of the fact that since the ruling on the matter last week Thursday, the GTU has been reaching out to the TSC, to no avail.This is according to GTU General Secretary, Ms. Coretta McDonald.Chief Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards last week ruled in favour of the GTU, thereby demanding that the TSC review its preliminary teachers’ promotion list for 2015.The stalled 2015 promotions had resulted in no teachers’ promotions this year.McDonald, who was speaking at a press conference held at the union’s Woolford Avenue,Artemi Panarin Jersey, Georgetown headquarters yesterday, said that since the ruling “we have not been able to meet with our counterparts at the Teaching Service Commission…they are either out in the field or they are unavailable to take our calls”.But according to the General Secretary,NFL Jerseys From China, “the GTU, like the organisation we are, we still have that olive branch that we are willing to extend to the members of the Teaching Service Commission. We recognise that this is not about the GTU and this is not about the Commission, this is about being a responsible stakeholder and working towards the benefit of the teachers of this country which would boil down to the interest of the children we are placed in charge of”.“It is not anything about one person or one organisation, we are about the business of education and unless our teachers are comfortable they cannot give of their best, and even if they decide to do that, it will not be done to the level that we expect it to be done,” McDonald asserted yesterday.The GTU in 2015 filed an injunction to prevent the TSC and the Schools Board Secretariat from preparing their final lists of teachers’ promotion,Deion Jones Falcons Jersey, since there were some concerns that the process to select teachers for promotion was not fair.While the Schools Board Secretariat had expressed its willingness to adhere to the union’s call for a review, the TSC had opted to fight the matter out in court. It was, moreover, anticipated that with the court ruling, the Secretariat would have immediately proceeded with its review process.But McDonald yesterday expressed concern that although the Board has some level of autonomy,China Jerseys Cheap, it is essentially governed by the TSC. She explained that while the TSC had a couple of years ago given authority to the Secretariat to do promotions, appointments and recommend and institute disciplinary actions against teachers, since the ruling on Thursday this authority was revoked.Describing this development as strange, McDonald related that “the Schools Board Secretariat had written to the TSC, seeking to have this same authority vested in them to continue to do the promotions and appointments, and this was received with what we did not expect from the TSC, where they said to them blatantly that they will not be able,Cheap Jerseys Free, at that time, to give that sort of authority to the Schools Board, which will have our teachers in the School Board schools being placed on the same level as the teachers from the non-board schools.”This therefore means that the Schools Board Secretariat can only proceed with its review and ultimate promotion at the behest of the TSC. But the GTU is hoping that the TSC will be able to fast track the review, so that teachers could be appointed by January of next year.According to GTU President, Mark Lyte, the ruling of the court has essentially confirmed the union’s suspicion that the TSC and the Secretariat were not acting in a fair way in relation to teachers who applied for senior promotions.The ruling essentially quashed the preliminary lists that were completed by both the TSC and the Secretariat, and made clear that the very lists were unlawful, irrational, unreasonable, in excess of jurisdiction, null and void and of no legal effect.“The Chief Justice agreed that the lists were flawed…the lists that were produced should not be used to facilitate 2015 promotions. She instructed and compelled the TSC and the Schools Board Secretariat to assess all applications for promotions afresh,” Lyte disclosed.Lyte said that he is concerned that there has been no word that the two entities have commenced the ordered re-assessment, thus the GTU is appealing to the two bodies to “utilise their resources to ensure that the teachers who were due their promotions since September 2015 could enjoy their promotions as of January 2017.”The GTU president is convinced that the process will not be a tedious one, since the two entities are already in possession of the applications to be re-assessed. He anticipates that the process could be completed within two or three weeks at the most.“We are calling on the powers that be to ensure that the Commission acts and settles, once and for all, this matter that has placed the careers and the future of many of our teachers on hold,” said Lyte,NFL Jerseys China Online, as he added that “this is a good opportunity for President (David) Granger to take some affirmative action to fix the Teaching Service Commission, because the ruling has confirmed that the Commission has not been acting over the last 20 years or so in the interest of our teachers.”However, the GTU executive members have acknowledged that the Union will more than likely have to abide with the current Commission which is slated to be dissolved during the last quarter of next year.Though solicited, no comment was forthcoming from the TSC yesterday. |
