I AM compelled to keep writing on the issues affecting senior teachers who upgraded themselves from diploma to degree level and higher until someone in authority listens to us.

Diploma teachers who were in the DG29 scale for 10 years or so and who graduated with a basic degree prior to 1997 have been denied the perks and increase in salary which have been accorded to those who graduated recently.

Teachers in this category, who graduated after 1997, have been granted four jumps in salary but we who graduated earlier have been denied even one jump.

In the last two years, teachers from DG29 who graduated and were placed in the DG41 scale were rewarded with an increment last year and, most recently, were entitled to convert their non-degree years of services where every three years of service as a non-graduate was equivalent to a year’s service in DG41, up to a maximum of nine years (equivalent to three jumps).

This move by the Public Service Department (PSD) was most welcome and was definitely overdue.

Teachers who graduated before 1998 have been completely denied any incentive and this move is seen as the most cruel blow to our dignity. Let alone the four jumps, we were even denied the initial one jump given last year.

Why are senior teachers penalised for something that they rightfully deserve? How did the PSD come up with such a formula? What irks me is the silence of the National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP).

Of course, the union claims that it is working behind the scenes. As far as I can recall, the NUTP has concentrated on fighting for the diploma holders more rigorously than for the degree holders.

It seems to me that the NUTP places less importance on degree holders simply because the majority of the members are from the diploma category and most of the time, if not all the time, the top office bearers at state and national level are from this group.

I urge all affected teachers, who have been denied the extra perks and increment, to stand up and make it known to the PSD and the NUTP that our numbers also count.

We must not be afraid to speak up on the discrepancies in the system. We deserve just as much as the junior teachers have got, if not much more.

JAYARAJ K.G., SSitiawan

Source: NST – November 30, 2008