Summary
It is interesting to note that in April 2023, the Grenada Government, and the Grenada Union of Teachers (GUT), inked a multi-year agreement for salary increase and other fringe benefits covering the period 2023-2025. This agreement was followed by successful negotiations that commenced in December 2022. This is a very a good example for the Guyana counterpart (GTU) to follow, which is on the table from the Government’s side.
The Government has made it clear that it would not be feasible to enter into a multi-year agreement for previous years, which is the proposal that the GTU has put to the Government covering the period 2019-2023. The Government of Guyana has openly disclosed that they are willing to negotiate a multi-year agreement covering the period 2024-2027 or 2024-2029. This author would therefore like to urge the leadership of the GTU to return to the negotiation table with the authorities in good faith. And like their Grenadian counterparts, opt for a multi-year agreement for the period 2024-2027 or 2024-2029, which the Government of Guyana is more than willing to consider and honor.
Introduction
In a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), Dr. Vincent Adams reportedly “lamented the fact that teachers have to protest for better pay in oil-rich Guyana”. In making his point, he goes onto argue that Grenada, a spice producing nation is paying their teachers more than what obtains in Guyana. Often, these types of argumentations are conveniently framed within a certain conceptual perspective in mind. But context is typically omitted though crucial to the larger appreciation and understanding of the reality of the situation at hand and more so the relevance. In this article, this author delves into the contextual analysis, which was omitted from the discourse and concludes with a proposal for the stakeholders to consider.
Discussion and Analysis
The tagline that Guyana is an “oil-rich” country has the proclivity to drive certain expectations not often grounded in realism and pragmatism. The fact of the matter is that it is not today that Guyana is an “oil-rich” nation. The oil was always there beneath the earth’s surface within the sovereign geographic space called Guyana—billions of years now. It was only recent that this resource known as “crude oil”—was discovered in commercial quantities, just about nine (9) short years ago, after about fifteen (15) years of exploration. Following discovery, it took another five years to monetize the resource, inter alia, the commencement of the production phase.
Guyana’s oil wealth in terms of proven reserves currently stands at an estimated eleven (11) billion barrels, worth an estimated US$832 billion at current price. Production, however, began less than five (5) years ago. To date, only 3% of the total proven reserves, valued at US$42 billion or 5% of the total present value of the proven reserves have been extracted.
Moreover, the Government’s share of the revenue inclusive of projected earnings for 2024 is an estimated US$6 billion (0.7%) of the total present value of the proven reserves—that is, less than 1% of the total value of proven reserves that Guyana has earned thus far.
On a point of correction, Dr. Adams posited that Guyana has the highest GDP. Guyana’s GDP is not the highest, the GDP growth rates are the highest of recent and the projected growth over the medium term. The country with the highest GDP is the United States of America, with a GDP of an estimated US$28.8 trillion (2024). The high GDP growth rate in Guyana is attributed to the scale and rapidity of increased levels of production in the oil and gas sector—from a position of 120k barrels per day since first oil to over 600k barrels per day in 2024. Consequently, production has increased 5-fold since first oil, in less than five years and the oil economy represents twice (2x) the size of the non-oil economy. It is important to note, though, that the high double-digit GDP growth rates will revert to the single digit in the period post 2030, by which time oil production is expected to plateau. Peak production is anticipated to be in the region of 1.3 million barrels per day by 2027-30.
With respect to the reference to Grenada, it is interesting to note that in April 2023, the Grenada Government, and the Grenada Union of Teachers (GUT), inked a multi-year agreement for salary increase and other fringe benefits covering the period 2023-2025. This agreement was followed by successful negotiations that commenced in December 2022. This is a very a good example for the Guyana counterpart (GTU) to follow, which is on the table from the Government’s side. The Government has made it clear that it would not be feasible to enter into a multi-year agreement for previous years, which is the proposal that the GTU has put to the Government covering the period 2019-2023. The Government of Guyana has openly disclosed that they are willing to negotiate a multi-year agreement covering the period 2024-2027 or 2024-2029.
The table attached shows a comparative contextual view of Grenada’s education sector budgetary allocations versus Guyana’s.
Here are some critical facts to consider.
.Guyana’s education budget is 6x the size of what obtains in Grenada, while Guyana’s total number of teachers is 8x Grenada’s,
• Guyana’s education budget represents 87% of Grenada’s total national budget,
• Grenada has a total student population of 22,000, which would give rise to a student-teacher ratio of 12:1,
• Guyana has about 180,000 students, which would give rise to a ratio of 13:1,
• 79% of Grenada’s education budget is allocated towards recurrent expenditure, and 21% towards capital expenditure, whereas in Guyana, 67% of the education budget is allocated towards recurrent expenditure and 33% towards capital expenditure, and
• Guyana’s budget for teachers wages and salaries is US$192 million, 2.15x the size of Grenada’s entire budget for the education sector.
Simply put, teachers in Grenada apparently earn a higher average salary than their Guyanese counterparts because the teaching service workforce population is 8x smaller than Guyana, with a budget that is 6x smaller than what obtains in Guyana. Most notably, the Grenadian Government is not investing in the education sector as heavily as in the case of Guyana—as demonstrated by the allocation of resources towards capital expenditure.
This means that perhaps there is not much new infrastructure needed in Grenada’s education sector. Therefore, there is more financial resources allocated towards wages and salaries, with of course a much smaller workforce.
In Guyana, the situation is the inverse, whereby significant investments are needed in the physical, social, human, and technological infrastructure for the sector.
For the sake of argument and demonstration, it is not only that the current proposal by the GTU would not be feasible and practicable; they should also consider that with the adjustment for anomalies and across the board increases over the period 2020-2023, there is a higher base salary to start from going forward. There are cases whereby some categories of teachers’ salaries were adjusted upwards on the highest end of the salary scale.
Even if the Government was to consider the back-dated proposal, to be prudent, the increases would have to considered based on the old, lower base salaries for that period. For example, the trainee teachers previously were earning a stipend of $12,000 monthly. That category of teachers is now earning $90,000 monthly owing to the upward adjustments by the Government in 2022-2023. So, if the GTU is adamant to consider from 2019-2023, the increases that the GTU is requesting would have to be applied to the old base, which was $12,000, which would have taken it up to $35,156 for the year 2023 based on the annual increases that the GTU has put forward.
Clearly, this is much lower, 2.5x lower than what this category of teachers are earning currently on account of the upward adjustments. Henceforth, it would be in the best interest for this category of teachers to consider increases from 2024 onwards, through a multi-year agreement; such that the benefits accrued therefrom would ultimately be greater than the GTU’s original proposal.
Conclusion
In closing, this author would therefore like to urge the leadership of the GTU to return to the negotiation table with the authorities in good faith. And like their Grenadian counterparts, opt for a multi-year agreement for the period 2024-2027 or 2024-2029, which the Government of Guyana is more than willing to consider and honor.
