Black Immigrant Daily News

Principals have been given pre-approval for the replacement of teachers in clear vacancies and temporary posts funded by the Ministry of Education and Youth.

This is to create greater efficiency in the hiring of new teachers and reduce the time it would usually take to approve appointments between the Ministry and schools.

Portfolio Minister, Fayval Williams, provided details during a press conference at the Ministry in Kingston, today (August 22).

She advised that schools should continue to submit formal requests for appointments, which will be responded to by the respective Regional Offices.

Mrs. Williams noted that a Facility has been created for school Boards to request extensions for teachers who are scheduled to proceed on retirement, effective September 1, 2022, and beyond.

“[They must] have performed well, based on their last performance appraisal report, to fill areas of specialisation at the secondary school level, for which there is a short supply of teachers, determined by the response to advertisements or reported lack of suitability of respondents by the school Board,” she said.

School Boards are also granted approvals to employ teachers using the Part-Time Facility.

“These would [also] include teachers who would have retired since January 2018, and beyond, and have performed well based on their last performance appraisal report, prior to their retirement,” the Minister said.

She pointed out that the Part-Time Facility allows up to 20 hours of work for areas of specialisation at the secondary level where there is a short supply of teachers or as determined by the response to advertisements.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has also made provisions for schools to engage final year student-teachers from accredited institutions to fill areas of specialisation that have a short supply of teachers.

These teachers will be employed temporarily and paid in the category of Pre-Trained Teachers.

Other provisions include redeploying staff or increasing the number of teaching sessions of a staff member and merging smaller classes to reduce teacher demand for a subject area.

Utilising the ‘Blocked Timetable’ approach, where all or a subset of teachers for a subject area are timetabled at the same time to ensure all students are being taught by a trained teacher through regrouping, can also be considered.

Minister Williams emphasised that while the assessment of teacher movements within the sector continues, the Ministry “always has to ensure we have replacement teachers.”

“The teaching profession, like any other profession, has attrition annually. We do not know [why], because our teachers are under no obligation to tell us why they are resigning. It is a personal decision, and we respect that,” she said.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

News

Acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob, right, speaks to participant of the parenting for men programme Kevin Frederick and Minister of Social Development and Family Services Donna Cox at the launch of the Ministry’s parenting programme at the Mt. Hope/Mt. Lambert Community Centre, on Monday. – AYANNA KINSALE

Social Development and Family Services Minister Donna Cox said the ministry has assigned an officer to offer counselling to the family of seven-year-old Mckenzie Hope Rechier, who was strangled to death by a close relative in Palo Seco on Friday night.

In a Whatsapp message in response to questions from Newsday as to what role the ministry would play in the situation, Cox said,

“The Ministry assigned an officer to offer counselling to the family. If the (woman) has mental health issues, that will be handled by the Health Ministry. All children’s matters are dealt with by the Children’s Authority.”

Acting Commissioner of Police Mc Donald Jacob said an investigation was being carried out into whether a report was made to police about possible death threats made by the mother in the weeks leading up to the child’s death. Reports are that neighbours reached out to the police and to the Children’s Authority but no response was forthcoming.

Speaking to the media following the launch of the National Family Services Parenting Programme 2022, Jacob said the investigation was being carried out by Special Victims Department head Snr Supt Claire Guy-Alleyne.

“An investigation was done to see whether or not a report was actually made in that regard and I think she will address the media soon.

“Some people will call in through our 999 system, and through that we have a dispatch system where all reports are recorded, so there are ways and means we can track back the recording.

“Even though the report was made to the station, we can get that information. We may not get the voice recording, but we will see that a call came from that particular number at that point in time. So it’s easy to track it down to see whether or not someone called the station to make a report.”

Jacob said people who are feeling overwhelmed and frustrated can call the police and receive active intervention through the department.

“The Special Victims Department was established to provide the initial support and do the referral to the Family Division, when we see people needing help, to provide the necessary counselling.

“We are here to provide that support to our communities. We also have social workers attached to the police service and the Victim and Witness Support Unit officers who work within that unit to provide the necessary support, so once someone calls, we will provide the initial support and counselling and we will refer them to the Family Division of Social Services where there are people with the requisite skills where counselling might be needed.

“Counselling sometimes is a continuation and sometimes when we analyse the situation we will see that the person may need other support and that is where the Ministry will come in.”

Jacob said there were other lines which people can call if they are in need of help such as 800-SAVE.

Anyone who needs help can call Lifeline (24-hour hotline) at 800-5588, 231-2824 or 220-3636

In case of an emergency (attempted suicide), people can call 990, 811, or 999.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

The Government has engaged the Regional Security System (RSS) to seek external assistance in its efforts to solve the murder of Ricardo “Paper Shorts” Fagundes.

This was confirmed by President Dr Irfaan Ali in an interview with the media on the sidelines of an event on Monday. According to him, the Government is eager to have this investigation move forward and be concluded.

“Its independent. I’ve always said, we are a Government with transparency. So, the questions arose about the investigation. I reached out to the RSS. And I’ve asked them to assess and evaluate what is taking place currently with the investigation.”

“And give us their opinion. And that is what they’ll do. We hope they’re here as we speak. Because we have definitely communicated our eagerness to have this (investigated),” President Ali said.

The RSS is a defence and security alliance of the Eastern Caribbean Region. RSS Headquarters is located in Barbados and is the Coordinating Secretariat of the Caricom Security Assistance Mechanism. As a result, it has additional responsibilities to the wider Caricom Region.

Government had previously sought assistance from the RSS, to aid investigators with the 2020 killings of the Henry cousins, Isaiah and Joel Henry, along with Haresh Singh and Chatterpaul Harripaul which occurred in the subsequent aftermath during a widespread unrest.

The five-member team, which was led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police and comprised officials from countries within the Regional Investigative Management Systems (RIMS), was in Guyana for one week. It subsequently completed its report and handed it over to the Guyana Police Force (GPF), recommending that the Police do additional work.

Ricardo “Paper Shorts” Fagundes was killed execution-style in March 2021 outside a popular Main Street, Georgetown night spot. Reports are the man was partying with a group of friends at the bar when his phone rang and he exited the club to take the call, but soon after, was shot and killed.

Days after being busted along with others by the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) with cocaine, Sergeant Dion Bascom claimed during a Facebook Live that he was being set up and alleged that a senior Police officer is covering up the murder of Fagundes.

Since making his allegations, Bascom is facing three lawsuits that run into several millions of dollars. They are from Police Superintendent Mitchell Caesar, the senior cop whom he alleged is covering-up Fagundes’s murder; from Mark Richmond; and from Richmond’s employer, businessman Azruddin Mohamed.

Bascom, through his lawyer, has since written President Ali for witness protection after reportedly being threatened. In the letter to President Ali, Bascom claimed that even though he was directed to arrest a person of interest in the case, the person had advance warning and subsequently called to threaten him.

But the Protected Disclosure Act of 2018, states “(1) Where a person seeks to make a disclosure in pursuance of this Act, in relation to a matter that would prejudice the national security, defence, or international relations of Guyana, the closure shall be made to the President, the Minster or the Ministers responsible for National Security. (2) The President, the Minister, and the Ministers responsible for public security shall establish and cause to be operated procedures for receiving, investigating or otherwise dealing with disclosures made under subsection (1).”

On this note, President Ali had stated previously that he was yet to see the content of the letter, but once he has a look at it he will address the issue.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Bascom and his attorney Nigel Hughes again made several statements in connection with the case but the Guyana Police Force was quick to point out several discrepancies.

The Force reiterated that it is currently being assisted by an internationally recognised law enforcement agency in conducting the Ricardo Fagundes murder probe. Further, it stated that items recovered from the crime scene were also sent overseas for analysis and are still to be returned.

NewsAmericasNow.com