Teaching positions advertised
A result of three-year hiatus of commission
Stabroek News
March 21, 2004
After being out of existence for nearly three years, the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) is moving to regularise the various appointments made in its name.
On Sunday, the TSC advertised more than 100 vacancies for heads of schools and practical instruction centres as well as for deputy headmasters and mistresses and senior masters and mistresses.
An official at the Teaching Service Commission told Stabroek News that most of the positions advertised are not vacant in the true sense of the word since there are people who have been performing the duties of the various posts while not substantively appointed to them. The official said that the posts are being advertised so that all those persons qualified to be appointed can do so, since some of the persons who have been acting in these posts may not be qualified to be appointed substantively to fill them.
The official declined to be drawn as to how many of the vacancies were as a result of teachers leaving for other countries, beyond saying that teachers are always leaving and others always joining the profession. However, observers point out that while teachers are always leaving and joining, those who join are not as experienced as those who leave.
Education Minister Dr Henry Jeffrey in the March issue of Current Affairs said that plans were in train to fast track the training of teachers so that they acquire the required competence in a shorter period thus mitigating losses to migration.
The advertisement, which the TSC placed in the Sunday Stabroek and Sunday Chronicle, is for vacancies for 130 heads of nursery schools, 247 heads of primary schools, of which 41 are for schools in Regions 7, 8, and 9; 41 positions for deputy heads and 110 positions of senior masters. There are also four positions of Heads of Department for Agriculture and Home Economics.
At the secondary level, there are 75 vacancies for heads of schools including Queen's College, Bishops' High School and St Rose's High Schools; and 27 vacancies for deputy heads of secondary schools, four of which are for President's College, Queen's College, St Stanislaus College and Bishops' High School. The advertisements also call for applications for eight positions as senior master/mistresses at President's College, Queen's College, Bishops' and St Rose's High schools and 36 positions at Grade A secondary schools, 17 positions at Grade B secondary schools, 7 positions at Grade C secondary schools and 2 positions at Grade D secondary schools.
The advertisement also calls for applications to fill 60 posts as Head of Mathematics Departments, 68 posts as Head of Science Departments, 59 posts as Heads of English Departments, 26 positions as Heads of Modern Languages Departments, 48 positions as Heads of Social Studies Departments, 50 positions as Heads of Business Education Departments, 21 positions as Heads of Allied Arts Departments, 40 positions as Heads of Home Economic Departments, 53 positions as Heads of Agriculture Science Departments, 15 positions of Heads of Information Technology Departments, and 35 positions as Heads of Industrial Arts Departments.
The advertisement says that copies of the applications for these positions must reach the Secretary, Teaching Service Commission by April 21. The Regional Education Officers and the Assistant Chief Education Officer Georgetown, the advertisement says, will set the deadline for the receipt of original applications by them and the Chief Education Officer will set the deadline by which all original applications should reach the Central Ministry.