Some 100 graduate teachers who have been waiting for up to five years to be appointed to that level will be paid graduate teacher salaries as of Jan. 1, 2018.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves made the announcement in his Independence Address to the nation on Friday — St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ 38th anniversary of independence.
Addressing the military parade at Victoria Park, Kingstown, Gonsalves said the “education revolution” has been very successful in facilitating teachers to obtain university education.
He, however, said that the problem is that the government has been so successful in that regard that up to now there have been insufficient graduate teacher posts in the establishment.
Gonsalves, who is also Minister of Finance, said graduate teachers who have not been so appointed have been paid a graduate allowance.
However, a significant number of these graduates, because they are close to, or at the top of their current salary scale, their graduate allowance is small, the prime minister said.
“I am correcting this. Thus, as at January 1st, 2018, all teachers who graduated from university up to an including 2012 — about a hundred of them — and who have not yet been appointed to the graduate teacher grade will be so appointed,” Gonsalves said.
He said that those from the graduating year 2013 onwards who have not yet been appointed to the grade of graduate teachers would be appointed in annual batches over the next three years until all them are appointed.
“I am sure the teachers would be very pleased about this, and we have reasons, therefore to celebrate.”
The PM always focuses on inputs more teachers, more credentials, more schools, more students but says nothing about the outputs, namely, what more students at more schools with more teacher with more degrees are actually learning.
This is because learning outcomes have declined as learning inputs have increased. Why? Because the curricula have been watered down to accommodate the hoards of dull and unmotivated students from homes with dull and unmotivated parents now attending secondary school.
The result is that those with an associate degree today have less actual learning than someone with eight O-level subjects two generations ago.
I know this because the same process has been going on in the developed countries of America, England, Canada, and elsewhere for decades, countries with their own education revolutions which have also produced hoards of credentialed dunces.
Isn’t it nice how politicians play fast and loose with the taxpayers money? Good treatment, as well as fair pay of Public Servants is not what we are against, especially teachers. What many of us do not like is that we have far too many Public Servants in other areas and unnecessary areas. Along with this we have an airport that has no chance to ever be used to capacity in our lifetime; It is indeed a liability on the economy. When will we ever have intelligent Financial Management in SVG?
Those of us that are AWAKE must continue to expose all the mismanagement of our government, otherwise those that criticize us will cause SVG to continue us to fall deeper and deeper into debt, poverty crime and dishonour.