Statement from President of Guyana Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, on the Revision in Salaries for Teachers and Cost of Living Measures

My Fellow Guyanese, Good Morning.

Last year, I announced, the first phase of salary adjustments, which took effect in January of this year, benefiting over 5,000 healthcare workers and almost 9,000 members of the Disciplined Services, resulting in an additional $3 billion in disposable income in the hands of these workers each year. Government continues to work to resolve anomalies and disparities across comparable positions within the Public Service

As you would recall a few weeks ago I met with teachers from across the country. Subsequently, the Minister of Finance, Prime Minister and a number of other Cabinet colleagues would have met with unions across our country including the Guyana’s Teacher’s Union. We consulted, we listened and today this morning I am now pleased to announce the following adjustments:

Adjustment to the salary and allowance of Graduate Teachers

1. All Graduate Teachers (i.e holders of a relevant Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Guyana, a Degree awarding institution under the GOAL Programme, or a Degree certified by the National Equivalency Board) shall be moved to the maximum of the scale applicable to the post they currently occupy. This will benefit over 4,000 teachers at an additional annual cost of $1billion, effective from 1 December 2023.

• Additionally, teachers will receive an Education allowance of:
  • $10,000 monthly for holders of a Bachelor’s Degree – this allowance would be equivalent to $120,000 annually.
  • $20,000 monthly for a Master’s Degree. This is a additional $240,000 annually for teachers holding a Master’s Degree, and
  • $30,000 monthly for a Doctorate Degree which is equivalent to $360,000 annually. That is additional allowances.

These revision in allowances will benefit over 4,500 teachers at an additional annual cost of $500 million. Additionally, any preexisting allowances paid in relation to the Post Graduate Diploma in Education (DipEd) will remain in place.

The adjustment to the salary and allowances of these workers, depending on the salary scale, represents between a 10 percent and 17 percent increase on the current minimum salary paid to these workers.

Remote Areas Incentive (RAI)

• The RAI will be adjusted upwards from its current level to $20,000 monthly effective from 1 December 2023. This will benefit of over 2,400 teachers at an additional annual cost of $260 million.

For illustrative purposes, these adjustments and salary increases will see for example:

• A Graduate Senior Mistress/Head of Department will now have their current salary adjusted upwards from $243,069 to $262,917, and with the inclusion of the revision to Education allowances, represents an overall 12 percent increase, compared to the previous minimum salary paid to a Graduate Senior Mistress/Head of Department.

• In the case of a Graduate Senior Assistant Mistress teacher working in the Hinterland will now have their current minimum salary adjusted upwards from $223,232 to $243,076, and with the inclusion of the revision to Education allowances and RAI, this will represent an overall 16 percent increase, compared to the previous minimum salary paid to a Graduate Senior Assistant Mistress in an RAI area.

Now, before I go to other matters, if you look at the average of the increase in salaries alone, the annualized benefit that will go to a teacher is close to $240,000 at a minimum level. When we add the allowances, this will of course take this up further.

Duty Free Concession

All teachers who hold a substantive appointment as a Senior Master/Mistress or above and are within 3 years of retirement and have not previously received a Duty-free concession on a motor car, shall be entitled to a duty-free concession for a motor car up to 1500cc. This intervention is expected to cost $150 million annually. As of now, we have approximately 100 concessions that is given to teachers annually. Outside of these 100 concessions now, we are putting the position that every teacher once you are a senior master, mistress and above that you are entitled to this concession 3 years before retirement in keeping with the laws. This additional benefit will cost $150 million annually.

These interventions for teachers aggregate to a total of $1.9 billion in additional disposable income for teachers annually. These benefits will not only increase the disposable income of teachers immediately but will also impact significantly on the pension and gratuity payments teachers will be entitled to, on their eventual retirement. This is the point we have to understand too. Not only the immediate benefit but this also will bring long term benefit to teachers in the calculation of their pensions and their gratuity. 

Additionally, I now wish to make the following announcement in relation to the utilization of the $5 Billion Cost of Living allocation.

1. Public Servants, Teachers, members of the Disciplined Services, staff of Semi-Autonomous Agencies and Public Enterprises, and these semi-autonomous enterprises of course includes places like the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) – these public enterprises, semi-autonomous agencies, public servants, teachers, members of the Disciplined Services will receive a $25,000 one-off bonus payable in December 2023, December of this year. So, all workers in this category will receive a one-off $25,000 bonus payable in December 2023. This will bring benefit to 67,000 workers across the spectrum of these categories; 67,000 workers at a cost of $1.7 billion. These adjustments will benefit workers including Policemen and women, Prison Officers, Soldiers, Nurses and Doctors, as would also benefit employees of Public Enterprises including GUYSUCO, GPL and NIS.

• Old Age Pensioners will also receive a $25,000 one-off bonus payable in December of this year 2023. This will benefit over 72,000 pensioners at a cost of $1.8 billion. Our pensioners will also benefit from a $25,000 one-off payment to the cost of $1.8 billion in December.

• Differently abled persons or persons receiving disability on the Public Register, they will also receive a $35,000 one-off bonus payable in December of this year. This one-off bonus payment of $35,000 to persons on our Public Assistance register will benefit 19,000 -persons at a cost of $660 million, and this too will be paid in December.

These one-off bonus payments will benefit almost 160,000 persons and increase their disposable incomes by over $4.1 billion.

Government will also allocate $850 million for the purchase of fertilizer for distribution to farmers. It is expected that this support will benefit 287,000 acres of cultivation and 35,000 farmers. And this will ensure increased food production and containment of cost.

Furthermore, under the Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP), Community Enhancement workers’ monthly earnings would be adjusted upwards to $40,000, effective 1^st December 2023, to the benefit of over 2000 workers, placing an additional $130 million in disposable income in the hands of these workers annually.

My Fellow Guyanese, the above interventions amount to over $7 billion in additional disposable income and represent a further instalment of my Government’s unwavering commitment to continue to improve the working conditions of our employees in the public sector, support to the vulnerable segment of our population and assistance to our farmers.

I will also very shortly be making an announcement on an across-the-board salary increase for the public servants, teachers and members of the disciplined services.

I thank you and God bless you.