 union input vital for education sector reform union input vital for education sector reform union input vital for education sector reform webmaster mon 2052018 2356 the active involvement of unions particularly the teachers union is critical for true and serious reform of the education sector according to coretta mcdonald general secretary of the guyana teachers union gtu mcdonald made the case on wednesday during her address at the university of guyana s 11th turkeyen and tain talks which explored the role of education reform for the nation s development the forum which was held at the pegasus hotel under the theme education as freedom education reform and socioeconomic development in guyana featured presentations from speakers professor michael scott deputy vice chancellor of academic engagement at ug ed caesar chair of the education reform commission petal jetoo national science coordinator christopher fernandes chair of the st stanislaus college school board mcdonald david singh vice president of conservation international and joel simpson of the guyana equality forum chief education officer marcel hutson appeared on behalf of minister of education nicolette henry the presentations made cases for reforms in the management of education education for sustainable development and reform in regards to the delivery of science and sex education within the education system it is easy to conclude that education is critical to the sustainable development of our people and this country it is even more critical when unions are allowed to be a part of educational reforms at all levels we cannot talk education reform when we want to sideline the union we cannot talk education reform when we only have the union at forums just to say that they are present mcdonald stated mcdonald s impassioned speech was packed with examples of how the treatment of teachers and the union that represents them continues to stifle development within the education sector she spoke of the unavailability of resources in the classroom the workload often dumped on teachers who are forced to perform tasks in addition to their own including secretarial duties and the disrespect often meted out to members of a profession once considered noble mcdonald argued for the continuous professional and academic development of teachers programmes that have merit financial or otherwise as well as adequate remuneration for teachers she called for more engagement and the marrying of local institutions with tertiary institutions overseas to adopt best practices revamping of the teachers training programme at the cyril potter college of education and an update of the policies within the sector including the code of conduct governing teachers we cannot talk educational reform when there is no serious desire to deal with the professional or the academic aspect of upliftment of the practitioners we cannot talk educational reform when we keep doing what we ve been doing since 1923 and we want to do it in 2018 we have to keep moving and adjusting to the time as we go she said if you re seriously talking education reform we have to go and relook at a number of the policies we have many of them are outdated and they need to be divorced and separated we have to go to the table put our heads and minds and hearts there of course with the union involved actively that is to sit and look at some of those policies that we have with a vision of reviewing and making them relevant if we re seriously talking education reform then the need for all the talking and the writing and everything else must stop now and we should start walking and have the actions happen mcdonald stated taxfree remuneration for teachers fernandes presentation like mcdonald s focused on the areas within the sector that need improvement particularly in relation to the teaching profession fernandes a businessman and chairman of the st stanislaus college board posited that in order to create a welltrained workforce the teaching profession needs to be made more attractive his suggestions for achieving this goal included having the remuneration of trained teachers be free of income tax providing dutyfree perks to teachers at the end of a predetermined period of satisfactory service and possibly having teachers be eligible for a house lot with concessionary low interest financing to construct a two bedroom house he suggested that this can be limited to 5 million he also recommended revisiting the retirement age we cannot longer afford to lose our good experienced teachers who are currently mandated to retire at age 55 since we are unable to replace them with persons of similar competence and experience he said our intention therefore to improve the quality of education would be to encourage better quality individuals to the teaching profession by making the profession more attractive expose them to active career guidance allowing for the teacher to regain the respect of the population and students which they once commanded fernandes added he also recommended a revision of the management of the ministry suggesting that there be a total audit of the management system of the ministry in which the minister should just be the executive chairman and where the day to day administration needs to be handled by a highly qualified and well trained professional he said that this professional the ceo would be supported by at least two equally well qualified deputies article adapted from  https wwwstabroeknewscom 2018 news stories 202 unioninputvitalforeducationsectorreform  turkeyen tain talks educational reform 