A panel comprised of 3 representatives: 1 from the Grenada Teachers Union (GUT); the Chief Education Officer, or his designate, and an independent, will be involved in the ongoing process to regularise the status of teachers in Grenada.
Cabinet has given approval for another batch of teachers to be regularised. When the process began in 2015, 650 temporary teachers were identified. To date, the status of 275 of those teachers has been regularised.
Sen Kate Lewis, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, gave details at a post cabinet briefing held on Tuesday, 3 October 2017.
“At present, we have identified 70 legitimate vacant positions, with an additional 31 places that will be reviewed for regularisation,” Senator Lewis said.
“At this time, a panel is being put in place to identify teachers to be interviewed and the criteria to be used includes teachers who have been in the service for 6 years and more, and those who have qualified teacher’s status.”
Lewis said once the next batch is regularised, the number of regularised teachers will increase to 380. Ministry of Education and Human Resource officials say government is aware of the importance of the teachers receiving permanent status.
“While we do this, we must understand the dynamics of the education system and the teaching service,” said Elvis Morain, the Chief Education Officer.
“People are going to leave; people are going to retire… The process has to be ongoing. What we have now is that at the end of October we’re going to complete our 3rd batch of teachers to be regularised.”
GIS