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Teacher Policy Framework for Guyana  
 
 
 
 
Contents 
 
1. Introduction 
2. Overarching goal and theoretical underpinnings 
 2.1. Professional 
 2.2. Motivating 
 2.3. Equitable 
3. Pillars of a comprehensive teacher policy 
 3.1. Teacher recruitment 
 3.2. Initial teacher training 
 3.3. Induction and registration 
 3.4. Professional development 
 3.5. Certification 
 3.6. Appraisal and accountability 
 3.7. Teacher career structures and pay 
 3.8. Teacher deployment and working conditions 
4. Possible organizational responsibilities 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



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1. Introduction 
 
Teachers matter. They are the main input of the educational production function, with the 
greatest impact on student learning (Hanushek, 1971; Murnane, 1975; Hanushek & Rivkin, 
2010; Staiger & Rockoff, 2010; Jackson et al., 2014; Rockoff, 2004; Rivkin et al., 2005; Aaronson 
et al., 2007; Chetty et al., 2011, 2014) and the greatest expenditure in education budgets. The 
Ministry of Education’s Education Sector Plan (2021-2025) recognises the importance of 
teachers to the education system, as does the CARICOM’s Human Resource Development 
Strategy. As such, improving teachers’ quality and quantity is seen as a critical strategy for 
improving educational performance in Guyana, and several programmes are already 
underway in pursuit of these outcomes.  
 

The Ministry also recognises that any programmes to improve the quality and quantity of 
teachers will be most effective if they form a part of a coherent set of teacher policies. Policy 
coherence is an important feature of good educational governance, and ultimately, having a 
comprehensive teacher strategy which addresses several interrelated dimensions affecting 
teachers is the most effective way of reaching priority educational objectives (UNESCO, 2019).  
 
This document is not a comprehensive teacher strategy but a teacher policy framework, which 
aims to give direction for the ultimate strategy and to support coherence between the 
different pillars of teacher development and management within it. It draws its inspiration 
from the written inputs of the Ministry team, conversations with Ministry colleagues and 
World Bank and IDB colleagues at two teacher policy workshops, Ministry and CARICOM 
documents relating to teacher policy, evidence on successful teacher policy reforms, and the 
workings of high-performing education systems with established teacher development and 
management systems.  
 
This framework will begin with an overarching vision for the teacher workforce in Guyana that 
coheres around three themes, and then propose approaches and policies in the areas of 
teacher recruitment, initial teacher training, induction and registration, professional 
development, certification, appraisal and accountability, teacher career structures, teacher 
pay, and teacher deployment and working conditions. In brief, this policy framework proposes 
the development of a teacher expertise framework linked to the Guyanese teacher standards; 
a progressive professional development offer and robust certification system based on this 
framework; new roles within the career structure that recognize and utilize teacher expertise; 
and a centralized choice and deployment system for matching teachers to schools. It is 
suggested that this linking of standards, professional development, certification and 
promotion will have implications for the attractiveness of the profession and therefore 
recruitment and will also open up novel ways of encouraging teachers to work in ‘less 
desirable’ locations. 
 
This document is an initial suggestion for how the various pillars within a comprehensive 
teacher policy for Guyana might work together. It is a prompt for discussion, which includes 
many different possibilities for actions you might take. I hope you find it helpful.  
 
 
 



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2. Overarching goal and theoretical underpinnings 
 
This teacher policy framework was written with the following goal in mind: 
 
A professional, motivated teacher cadre that is equitably deployed and maintained across 
the country.  
 
 

2.1. Professional  

 
In line with the approaches taken in high-performing education systems, the recent 
strategies and programmes planned and undertaken by the Guyanese Ministry of Education 
are those which seek to professionalize teaching and teachers. Among these, the adoption 
of teacher standards, the development of an appraisal instrument which aligns with the 
standards, the training of large numbers of in-service teachers, and the plans to establish a 
Teaching Council, all support the transition from a system in which anyone can become a 
teacher, to one in which there are quality requirements for entry - and continued 
employment - in the nation’s schools.  
 
This teacher policy framework builds on these promising beginnings to suggest a series of 
policies that are the hallmark of professions in other sectors and countries.  
 
 

2.2. Motivating 
 
Since the turn of the century, many countries around the world have been experiencing 
what has been described as a crisis in teacher motivation. In some places this has 
manifested as a high teacher attrition rate (e.g. Gonzalez-Escobar et al., 2020), in others, 
teachers have remained in their jobs but are often absent, or are present, but not actively 
teaching (e.g. Devcota, 2005).   
 
Based on limited data, Guyana appears to have avoided this crisis of teacher motivation, 
with an attrition rate in 2017 at under 10% (MoE Education Sector Plan, 2021-2025), and a 
recent review finding that teachers in Guyana spent 91 percent of classroom time actively 
teaching or providing a learning activity (Molina et al., 2018). This is a good place to start in 
the most recent efforts to develop the teaching workforce. 
 
This leads to two considerations. Firstly, it is important that any new policies implemented 
do not inadvertently introduce those factors that have led to a crisis of motivation in other 
countries, such as excessive teacher workload, rigid structures, and poor relationships with 
school management (e.g. Gonzalez-Escobar et al., 2020). Secondly, it is of course not enough 
for teachers to be ‘not demotivated’, rather, the teacher development and management 
system should aim to motivate teachers, not only to actively teach and remain in the 
profession but to continue to put in the effort required to get better over the course of their 
careers. It should give them a framework within which they can self-actualize.  
 



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Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2017) is based on decades of 
research into human motivation and provides a useful framework for thinking about the 
features of a teacher development and management system that support teacher 
motivation and well-being. It posits that goal-directed behaviours are driven by three 
psychological needs, the fulfilment of which in a particular context (in this case, schools) 
increases intrinsic motivation. These needs are: 

• Autonomy: the need to feel ownership of one's behaviour 

• Competence: the need to produce desired outcomes and to experience mastery 

• Relatedness: the need to feel connected to others 
Teachers’ ability to fulfil these needs is considered in the following proposals (as is 
consideration of the balance between these needs, and the need to occasionally remove 
poor teachers from the service).  
 
Finally, it is not enough to give teachers every best chance of being motivated in their 
existing jobs; we also need to motivate them to teach in less ‘desirable’ locations and to 
motivate more and better-qualified people to join the profession in the first place. Alongside 
optimizing for autonomy, competence and relatedness, these challenges call for and draw on 
more traditional economic incentives, designed in modern ways.  
 
*A note on autonomy. In the long run, there is a need to plan for how Guyana can shift the 
culture in schools to one in which teachers have more agency around what they do in the 
classroom. But in the short term, the focus of this policy framework is not to expand 
teachers’ autonomy in the classroom but rather to expand their autonomy and 
opportunities with regard to the direction in which they take their careers. 
 

2.3. Equitable 
 
Our considerations cannot end there. Optimizing for a professional and motivated teacher 
workforce in Guyana alone would not fully address the inequitable deployment of teachers 
nationwide. The hinterland regions have both higher student-teacher ratios than the rest of 
the country, and a smaller proportion of qualified teachers (data from Public Expenditure 
Review). Given the importance of both these factors for student performance, it is 
imperative that any teacher development and management system includes programmes, 
structures and incentives that address this inequality.  
 
Another way in which such a system should be equitable concerns fairness for the teachers 
themselves, in the way they are deployed and promoted. Currently, there are several 
different bodies that make decisions around deployment and promotion, and no clear rules 
and procedures for how these decisions are made which is common across them. As part of 
the redevelopment of the deployment system, these rules and procedures could be 
standardized and made public, so that teachers can understand how such decisions are 
made and see that they are made fairly. If a certification system is introduced, the same 
must apply to the rules and procedures surrounding certification.  
 

 
 



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3. Pillars of a comprehensive teacher policy 
 

3.1. Teacher Recruitment  
 

Current situation 
 
Across Guyana, on average, student-teacher ratios are relatively high compared with 
international peers, especially at the primary level (data from PER). There is a negative and 
statistically significant relationship between the number of students per teacher and student 
outcomes across all levels of education, and these ratios are worse in the hinterland regions. 
This suggests that more teachers need to be recruited than just enough to replace those 
who leave.  
 
The importance of reducing student-teacher ratios is not necessarily about reducing class 

size – some of the highest-performing systems have low student-teacher ratios, and yet keep 

their classes large to allow for teachers to have more non-teaching time during the working 

day. The Education Sector Plan (p63) reports that one of the most significant weaknesses of 

schools currently is the limited use of instructional time, due to frequent absences of 

teachers from the classroom (due to staff shortages, leave-taking, attendance at the 

University of Guyana, etc.). In order to improve the quality of teaching, there need to be 

enough teachers in each school to allow time during the school day for professional 

development, professional collaboration, planning and marking.  

 
To identify how many teachers are required each year, and in what phase and subject, an 

audit and planning exercise needs to be undertaken at key points in the year, which takes 

into account existing teacher numbers, retirement, attrition, and enrolment projection, all 

disaggregated by level and region. This analysis should include consideration of budget 

availability for training new teachers. 

 

More academically accomplished students could be targeted in recruitment drives 
 
In high-performing education systems, the teaching cadre draws from the top third of students 
graduating from high school at age 18/19, or from degrees in other subjects. Commensurate 
with this, data from Guyana shows that at the secondary level, teachers’ own academic 
preparation appears to contribute to students’ learning outcomes (data from the PER).  
 
While we don’t yet have data on the quality of recent applicants to teacher training in Guyana, 
Elaqua and colleagues (2018) find that the teaching profession in the LAC region as a whole 
has yet to successfully attract the most talented individuals into the profession. Often, 
pursuing a teaching career is merely seen as a means to attain a degree rather than a lifelong 
vocation. In the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, 12.4% of individuals enrolled in 
higher education programs aim to pursue teaching careers. This percentage significantly 
surpasses the 8% seen in OECD countries. Predominantly, these students are women (73%) 
hailing from middle to low socioeconomic backgrounds. However, upon admission, these 



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students often exhibit relatively lower academic performance compared to their counterparts 
pursuing different career trajectories (Elacqua et al., 2022).  
 
In light of this, one approach to improving the quality of teaching in Guyana would be to 
gradually shift the main intake of teacher trainees from those with CSEC qualifications to those 
with CAPE qualifications also, through gradually increasing the academic requirements for 
entry into teacher training, as the qualifications of those applying increase. The CAPE cohort 
of students could be one segment of the population to specifically target in recruitment 
efforts, alongside interventions that attract more highly qualified candidates in general. 
 
The IDB has carried out two large-scale, cost-effective interventions in Chile with the aim of 
attracting higher-qualified candidates to teacher education programs, utilising behavioural 
economics techniques (Ajzenman et al., 2021). These interventions took place during the 
centralized higher education admission, involving over 200,000 students. Utilizing 
communication channels such as emails, text messages, and chatbots, these interventions 
successfully led to a considerable increase in applications and enrollments in teacher 
education programs.  
 
In addition to these interventions, other effective strategies to attract qualified candidates to 
the teaching profession involve implementing demand-side policies. These include providing 
scholarships and loans specifically for high-achieving students who choose teaching careers – 
something that could be considered to attract CAPE-qualified students to teaching. This 
approach has not only proven successful in Chile but also in certain states in the United States 
(Pérez, 2020; Clotfelter et al., 2008).  
 
Finally, one way of getting CAPE students to have an experience of teaching and consider it as 
a career would be to give year two CAPE students some flexibility in their schedules and 
encourage them to teach in a different secondary school for a couple of hours a week. 
Students would be paid to do so and would need some form of training and support to ensure 
they had a good experience in the role. 
 
Students from remote regions could be targeted in recruitment drives  
 
We have already heard that remote regions of Guyana have substantially fewer trained 
teachers. One approach to addressing this inequity will be attracting teachers from 
elsewhere in the country to work in these regions, but another which could be used in 
addition is to target recruitment initiatives at young people who are from those regions, and 
therefore, more likely to stay and teach there in the long term. Their needs and preferences 
would need to be explored through focus groups and taken into account in the design of a 
recruitment campaign, and possibly, alternative teacher training route.  
 
Former teachers who have left the profession could be targeted in recruitment drives 
 
Despite the fact that the teacher attrition rate in Guyana is low compared to many other 
countries, there will still be a population of hundreds of experienced teachers that could be 
tempted to rejoin the profession, with the right accommodations and incentives. The 
attrition rate is substantially higher for women than for men, and this may mirror the 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sQl9lxJolmFK4wcXXREdzB5VSUaAP8ZJ/view


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experience of other countries where a high proportion of teachers who leave are women in 
their 30s, due to having families. Making some adjustments to make teaching in Guyana a 
flexible and family-friendly profession could attract experienced teachers back to the 
teaching workforce, prevent others from leaving, and even make the career more attractive 
to school leavers.  
 
Proposed short-term actions: 
 
→ Conduct research into the quality of the teacher training applicants CPCE has attracted in 
the last three years. (Approved) 
 
→ Design and implement a programme for CAPE students where they work in a different 
school for 2 hours a week alongside their studies and receive an honorarium. Design some 
basic training, and ensure it is adequately supported. (Approved)  
 
→ Divide potential target groups of potential teachers into segments (CAPE students, 
qualified students from rural areas, and former teachers), and conduct focus groups with 
each to discover what factors might motivate them to work as a teacher. (Approved) 
 
Proposed medium-term actions: 
 
→ Design teacher recruitment and incentive programmes (e.g. fast-track training or 
promotion opportunities, paid-for degrees in exchange for a return of service, childcare 
provision) based on the findings of the segmented focus groups referred to above. Evaluate 
and build on existing programs. (Approved) 
 
→ Utilize behavioural economics techniques to design an intervention to attract higher-
quality candidates to teaching, similar to the one IDB designed in Chile. (Approved) 
 
→ Make it one function of a new Teacher Council to signpost all routes into teacher training 
from a central admissions page, to reduce the cognitive load on potential applicants. 
(Approved) 
 
→ Make it another function of the new Teacher Council to conduct a bi-annual audit of the 

existing numbers of teachers and use this to inform planning for recruitment based on 

existing stocks, retirement, attrition, enrolment projection, and with due regard to 

budgetary considerations, all disaggregated by level and region. (Approved) 

 
Proposed long-term actions: 
 
→ Once there is a higher volume and quality of applicants to teacher training, consider 
raising the academic requirements for entry. (Approved) 

 
 
 
 



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3.2. Initial teacher education  
 

Current situation 
 
The Cyril Potter College of Education is the main provider of Initial Teacher Training in 
Guyana, with some teachers also trained at the University of Guyana. The most frequent 
types of teacher training are a Trained Teacher Certificate (50 percent of total teachers) and 
a bachelor’s in education (15 percent). Some teaching programs (diplomas and post-
graduate qualifications) are also offered by international universities via the Guyana Online 
Academy of Learning (GOAL). Both are in the process of being accredited. 
 
The share of untrained teachers is at least 25 percent at all levels of the education system. 
The Minister set a target for 100% trained teachers by 2025, and in light of this, CPCE’s 
intake has more than quadrupled. The goal is for one thousand teachers who are not yet 
trained to become trained. (CPCE principal and MOE to share latest data on these numbers). 
 
The CPCE is, therefore, undertaking an ambitious programme to upgrade the qualifications 
of practising teachers across the country who do not yet have a teacher training 
qualification. They have been expanding their digital and distance education competence to 
deal with this. This will support the transition of the teaching cadre towards being a 
regulated profession, where every teacher in a Guyanese school is qualified. 
 

Reviewing and standardising existing training routes 
 
This upgrading is a challenging undertaking. Internationally, there is no guarantee that 
teacher training or upgrading programmes will translate to teaching or student learning 
changes. For example, Indonesia introduced a large-scale upskilling and certification of 
teachers, but a later review found no difference in pedagogy or student outcomes between 
those primary school teachers who were certified, and those who were uncertified (Chang 
et al., 2013). In Guyana by contrast, the two most popular teacher training programmes 
positively correlate with student learning outcomes, across all grades (Public Expenditure 
Review, 2021). This is something to be celebrated.  
 
However, as with all teacher training programmes, there is scope for further improvement. 
The size of the correlation between teachers’ holding these qualifications and student 
outcomes is small at the primary level and moderate at the secondary level (PER). The 
existing programme at CPCE was the result of a project that concluded ten or eleven years 
ago, and the global research on what makes for effective teaching has moved on since then. 
One of the recommendations is, therefore, to review the existing teacher training 
programmes to determine the extent to which they are meeting their intended objectives 
and to optimise them based on the latest research into pedagogy and effective professional 
development.  
 
This fits in with the larger framework and ambition of professionalising the teaching 
workforce. In high-performing education systems and other professions, different training 
programmes are regulated to ensure that they meet a common standard so that all 



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professionals in the sector have a shared knowledge and skill base. It could be the role of the 
new Teaching Council to set out what these expectations of teacher training programmes 
should be, with the National Accreditation Council either performing the function of 
reviewing each of the programmes against these shared expectations or formally accrediting 
them once they have been reviewed by the Teaching Council.   
 

Teacher training schools  
 
From an equity perspective, it is brilliant that there are 20 CPCE centres placed throughout 
the country and that teachers from rural areas do not need to travel to different regions in 
order to do their training. Part of the value of defining shared expectations for all teacher 
training programmes will be supporting staff at every centre to ensure they offer high-
quality training. Something else supporting the high quality of teacher training across the 
country would be teacher training schools attached to each of the centres.  
 
Teacher training schools in Finland are attached to each university's teacher training 
department. They are regular schools with real school-age students, which also act as a site 
for trainee teachers to observe expert teachers and practice teaching themselves. The 
teacher educators within them are practising teachers who are also experts in teacher 
training and offer student teachers feedback during a series of practicums.  
 
In England, teaching schools act as a resource hub for all schools in their area and offer 
professional development courses. In Guyana, if a school in each region (or near each 
training centre) was designated a teacher training school, it could additionally act as a hub of 
teaching expertise and could be where ‘Master Teachers’ were based once those 
programmes/positions were set up.  
 
Proposed short-term actions: 
 
→ Review the existing teacher training programmes at CPCE and UoG to determine the 
extent to which they meet their intended objectives. (Approved) 
 
→ Identify and designate schools with ‘teacher training school’ status near each of the 20 
CPCE centres (based on the existing ECE model). Base expert mentors and teacher educators 
in these schools, providing ideal demonstration environments and practical exposure for 
trainee teachers. (Approved) 
 
Proposed medium-term actions: 
 
→ Develop common, standardised expectations of all teacher training programmes (a role of 
the new Teaching Council) based on the latest research into pedagogy and effective 
professional development. (Approved) 
 
→ Update existing programmes to align with these expectations. Formally accredit initial 
teacher training programmes that meet these expectations through the NAC. (Approved) 
 
Proposed long-term actions: 



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→ Re-evaluate initial teacher training courses every ten years. (Approved) 
 
 
 

3.3. Induction and teacher licensing  
 

Current situation 
 
The establishment of a Teaching Council of Guyana (TCoG) has been alluded to above and is 
already the intention of the Ministry of Education. CARICOM (2022) has released guidelines 
for the establishment of Teaching Councils, which this teacher policy framework is broadly in 
line with, and so rather than repeat much of what is already set out by CARICOM, this 
document will demonstrate how the Teaching Council might function within the wider 
teacher development and management system.  
 
One important function of a Teaching Council is to set up and manage a register of teachers 
who are qualified to teach in Guyana’s schools (where being on the register is equivalent to 
having a teaching license). How this works in many countries is that teachers are only 
provisionally registered (granted a provisional license from the Teaching Council) on 
graduation from their initial teacher training qualification, and then only become fully 
registered (granted their full teaching license) once they have successfully passed an 
induction period. Both these steps deserve further examination, as there are several 
opportunities for raising the quality of the profession at both the provisional and full 
registration stages. 
 

Teacher tests and provisional registration 
 
Part of what makes for a profession, and what raises both the quality and ultimately the 
status of a profession, is barriers to entry. Not ‘just anyone’ can become a doctor or a lawyer. 
There are exams to take, interviews to pass, and standards to maintain. Conversely, it is the 
perception that anyone can enter a role which lowers its status. The countries with the most 
prestigious teaching workforces (and the best educational outcomes) are often those which 
require teachers or teacher applicants to take tests – either on entry to teacher training or 
on entry to a teacher register or hiring pool.  
 
More locally, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, NY state and Washington DC have all 
introduced national teacher hiring exams, which teachers need to pass to get a job in the 
public school systems. Research on the effectiveness of this has found that test-hired 
teachers in Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Washington DC all produced higher student learning 
than non-test-hired teachers. Research by Estrada (2019) in Mexico is particularly 
interesting, as the comparison here was not with teachers who were not assessed at all but 
with teachers who were assessed by a non-test-based discretionary process; they still found 
that test-hired teachers produced better outcomes. This is consistent with recent evidence 
from Peru, in which Bertoni and colleagues (2023) examined the relationship between 
different types of teacher evaluation and teacher value-added (TVA) results and found that 



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test-based approaches were more predictive of TVA than classroom observations or 
interviews. 
 
The content of such an exam is obviously paramount, and if Guyana were to pursue this 
approach, the content should be based on the standardised expectations for initial teacher 
training, which themselves should be designed based on the best available evidence on the 
knowledge underpinning effective teaching (and all overseen by the Teaching Council). 
In Guyana, a teacher hiring exam could be implemented as a condition for getting a 
provisional teacher license. This hiring exam would be based on the standardised 
expectations for teacher knowledge set out by the Teaching Council and taught in initial 
teacher training. The process would look something like this. 
 
 

Academic criterion for entry to teacher training  
  
 

Fulfilling the requirements of diploma/degree  
 

 
Standardised test/s of teacher knowledge  

 
 

Provisional registration with the Teaching College of Guyana 
      
 
Teacher induction and full registration 
 
Although predictive of teacher performance, teacher tests can only assess teacher 
knowledge and a limited subset of skills. It is therefore important to evaluate a wider range 
of teacher competencies before granting teachers full registration to the Teaching Council, 
with the privileges that entail. Most of these can only be learned and demonstrated on the 
job, so a period of induction is important. 
 
The induction period performs a dual function of giving the novice teachers the time, 
support and direction to develop their skills and providing an opportunity for the system to 
gatekeep permanent entry to the teaching cadre and manage out any individuals who are 
not suitable for the profession. To the first point, it is important that novice teachers do not 
teach a full timetable but have time in the school day to reflect, plan and learn from 
colleagues. Not providing this extra time risks teachers dropping out or becoming 
demotivated quickly.  
 
Likewise, teachers need guidance from experienced colleagues, and international best 
practice in this respect is to select, train and make time for teacher mentors to work with 
novice teachers in schools. These mentors will usually be teachers in the same schools as the 
novice teachers (or a nearby school if the school is small), who have designated time to 
observe and provide supportive feedback to novice teachers and help them organise their 
portfolio (or other forms of evidence required for completion induction). These mentors 



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should ideally not be solely responsible for summative evaluation of the teachers, as this 
affects the working relationship.  
 
In the longer term in Guyana, if the Ministry chooses to pursue a teacher certification system 
and roles aligned with the different stages in the teacher standards, both the mentorship 
(within the school) and the evaluation (from another school) can form a part of the 
responsibilities of teachers with higher levels of certification.  
 
Guyana already has an induction process for teachers who have just finished their teaching 
qualification, which culminates with a certificate of completion of induction. This process is 
currently under review, as it needs to respond to the needs of the large numbers of in-
service teachers who are doing their teaching qualifications for the first time but are already 
experienced teachers. This draft teacher policy framework will need to be adapted to take 
into account this new induction system. Whatever the new induction process is, teachers 
should be provided explicit guidance about what knowledge, skills, behaviours and 
experiences they need to demonstrate and details of what evidence counts as 
demonstrating them.  
 
If this new induction system is based on the Guyanese teacher standards at the ‘Beginning 
Teacher’ stage, and novice teachers are assessed against these criteria, then successful 
completion of induction can become the criteria for full registration with the Teaching 
Council, and the award of a ‘Beginning Teacher of Guyana’ (BToG) certificate. This could also 
simply be called a ‘teaching license’ if preferred.   
 
A proposal for the requirements made of teachers at different stages of their early careers: 
 
 

Academic criterion for entry to teacher training  
  
 

Fulfilling requirements of diploma/degree  
 

 
Standardized test/s of teacher knowledge  

 
 

Provisional registration with the Teaching Council of Guyana 
      
 

Induction year with mentor support 
 
 

Assessment against standards for beginning teachers. 
 
 

Award of BToG Certificate/Teaching License and full registration with the TC  
 



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Proposed medium-term actions: 
 
→ Establish a new Teaching Council of Guyana. (Approved) 
 
→ Design and implement a teacher hiring test that teachers must pass to be provisionally 
registered with the Teaching Council, based on the Teaching Council's expectations for initial 
teacher training. Conduct consultations with key stakeholders to inform this policy.  
(Approved) 
 

→ Make teacher registration with the new Teaching Council a requirement for teaching in 
public schools in Guyana. (Approved) 
 
→ Decide on what knowledge, skills, behaviours and experience exemplify each of the 
teacher standards for ‘beginning teachers’, AND what kinds of evidence of meeting these 
standards teachers must demonstrate to get their ‘Beginning Teacher of Guyana’ (BToG) 
certificate. (It may not be necessary if this work has already been completed as part of the 
new induction process) 
 
→ Recruit and train a cadre of teacher mentors who understand (and are themselves skilled 
in) the requirements for induction/BToG certification to mentor teachers during their 
induction period. (In the longer term, this role would require a higher level of certification to 
be eligible). (It may not be necessary if this work has already been completed as part of the 
new induction process or new mentoring scheme – but it is imperative that these 
policies/programmes are aligned).  
 
→ Make the certificate of completion of induction the same thing as the BToG certificate 
and make this the sole requirement for full teacher registration with the Teaching Council 
(assuming teachers have already passed the hiring test). Review the requirements for 
induction to ensure they fully align with the Beginning Teacher standards and the 
knowledge, skills, behaviours and experience that underpin them. (Approved) 
 

 

3.4. Professional development  
 

Current situation 
 
National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) has overall responsibility 
for continuous professional development in Guyana, although there are a few different 
providers that deliver it. Schools are encouraged to develop professional development for 
their teachers; some informal learning takes place in cluster meetings across schools, and 
assistant chief education officers can organise professional learning for teachers at their level 
within districts.  
 
Much of the extensive work of the NCERD is designed as responsive, professional 
development (addressed below) to meet emerging needs of the system. The proposals in 



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this section of the policy framework are therefore focused on further supporting informal 
professional development in schools and clusters and establishing a suite of standards-based 
professional development courses to support teachers across the system along a 
development journey, guided by the different stages set out in the standards. 
 

Informal professional development   
 
Informal professional development refers here to the working environment and everyday 
working practices that lead to teacher development without the need for external input 
(once such practices are in place). High-performing education systems, especially those in 
East Asia, structure their teachers’ working lives in such a way as to encourage continual 
learning. Research from the US has highlighted how a school’s working environment makes a 
demonstrable difference to how quickly teachers improve. For example, Kraft and Papay 
(2016) find that, on average, teachers working in North Carolina schools at the 75th 
percentile of ‘supportive professional environment’ ratings improved 38% more than 
teachers in schools at the 25th percentile after 10 years. 
 
What makes for a supportive professional environment, and how to develop one, is a subject 
too large to be properly addressed in a paragraph, but it encompasses teacher timetable 
changes, collaborative planning, teacher professional learning communities, and often new 
teacher roles (e.g. a professional learning lead). Guyana has some form here, with the 
existence of learning communities at the cluster level; this is a strength which could be built 
on and expanded. Although a benefit of such a working environment in and across schools is 
that it doesn’t need ongoing external input, it does initial external input in the form of 
professional learning for whoever is leading the learning communities in order to ensure 
that they effectively generate teacher learning, and do not become predominantly focused 
on administrative matters.  
 
It would be a worthy venture of the NCERD to develop some programmes or policies to 
support these in-school and across-school practices and to support the establishment of 
learning communities in areas which do not yet have them. It is also worth noting here that 
in setting up a new teacher development and management system, great care must be taken 
to avoid accidentally creating unsupportive working environments in which teachers are in 
competition with one another or fearful of the judgement of their headteachers.   
 

Responsive, professional development 
 
Responsive professional development is an important part of a teacher development and 
management system, and encompasses much of the current work of the NCERD. It is 
designed in response to an identified need in the system, for example, a need for teachers to 
improve their formative assessment of students, or a need for them to understand a new 
curriculum or IT system. NCERD already offers formal responsive courses both online and in-
person, as well as more targeted interventions in particular districts, and even individual 
schools. Since the pandemic, NCERD has expanded its online offering, and this now gives 
teachers a chance to choose courses in response to their own individual needs too, making 
the PD offer responsive to needs at both a microcosmic and macrocosmic level.   
 



 16 

The addition of standards-based professional development should not be seen as a 
replacement of this type of PD; both responsive and standards-based PD are essential facets 
of an effective teacher development and management system. 
 

Standards-based professional development  
 
Standards-based professional development (Invargson, 1998; Getenet et al., 2013) is based 
on a nationally agreed framework or detailed standards outlining the knowledge and skills 
expected of all teachers, along with more targeted standards or expectations broken down 
by subject specialism and phase. When done well, it comprehensively and systematically 
builds on the knowledge and skills teachers develop in their initial teacher training, based on 
the expectation that teachers should continue to develop throughout their careers. Courses 
are linked together and build on each other, so that teachers’ expertise increases gradually, 
and the professional development they undertake is suited to their level of competence.  
 
This approach is taken in England with the Early Career Framework, which sets out the 
knowledge, skills and experiences teachers should develop in the first three years on the job. 
Professional development based on this framework is offered to all early-career teachers by 
a variety of professional development providers. Much of the content is delivered online, 
with designated mentors in schools to support the early-career teachers in applying their 
skills in the classroom.  
 
This is also the approach taken in Singapore, where teachers are required to undertake full-
time courses lasting several weeks at various stages in their careers in order to be eligible for 
a promotion. Some of these courses can be taken as self-directed learning using an online 
platform called VITAL (virtual institute of teaching and learning). Guyana’s new Moodle 
platform could be used to host these new courses, utilising the instructional design 
experience and training of NCERD colleagues.  
 
A non-educational problem, but with great implications for equal access to professional 
development, is the lack of consistent internet access across the country. This is an area of 
infrastructure that should be prioritised or some creative solutions found. In the absence of 
universal access, the 20 CPCE hubs could become professional learning hubs which could 
host regular ‘streaming’ of these courses (or simply access to these courses on individual 
machines) and provide short-term accommodation for teachers who needed to stay over 
due to distance from their homes. 
 

Teacher standards 

 
This philosophy of expecting continual improvement and the approach of interpreting 
standards as a series of progressive stages fit in well with CARICOM’s vision for the teaching 
profession in the region. One of the distinctive features of CARICOM’s Standards for the 
Teaching Profession is that “the expectations for good teaching are aligned and mapped 
across the practices of classroom teachers, educational leaders and teacher educators, this 
as quality teaching is deliberately nurtured and developed through the life of the career” 
(p6).  



 17 

 
The CARICOM standards document sets out standards for teachers, school leaders and 
teacher educators, and each standard briefly describes the competencies or behaviours one 
would expect of a teacher at different points in their career. For teachers, these are broken 
down into four stages: Beginning Teacher, Proficient Teacher, Accomplished Teacher, and 
Lead Teacher. Guyana’s standards are closely related to these CARICOM standards, with 
some modified to better suit the Guyanese context. 
 
The standards and the competency descriptions in the CARICOM document form a good 
starting point for developing a teacher expertise framework on which to base professional 
development but are not sufficient in and of themselves. The competency descriptions are 
brief and do not encapsulate what a teacher would need to know and do in order to meet 
such a description. For example, the statement: “Applies with good proficiency the 
knowledge of 21st-century practices in planning, teaching and assessing” does not include 
guidance on which practices teachers should be familiar with and what ‘applying with good 
proficiency’ would look like. This is a risk, as ‘21st-century practices’ could encompass a huge 
range of approaches, some of which are research-based and some of which could, in fact, be 
detrimental to student learning. Additionally, some of the competency descriptions in the 
CARICOM standards remain unchanged from stage to stage, and others reference attaining 
‘professional qualifications’, which may or may not contribute to teacher effectiveness.  
 
To have effective and systematic professional development, in which a course targeted to 
those aspiring to be ‘Lead Teachers’ built on the knowledge and skills already developed on 
a ‘Proficient Teacher’ course, this detail needs to be planned out. This could either be done 
in a teacher expertise framework document that linked directly to the Guyanese standards, 
or it could form a part of an expanded Guyanese standards document. The addition of more 
detail in either format is also crucial for a robust and reliable certification system (see next 
section). 
 
Proposed short-term actions: 
 
→ NCERD could undertake some research on the effectiveness of existing learning 
communities and develop some PD for learning leads at the cluster level and school level to 
support their functioning, expansion and alignment across the country. This should align 
with the leadership programme. (Approved) 
 
→ Investigate the situation with regards to internet access in remote regions and plan to 
address any dead spots. If this is too great a challenge, ensure all teachers have access to the 
learning resource centres to access streamed courses on demand and short-term 
accommodation if necessary. (Approved)  
 
Proposed medium-term actions: 
 
→ The Teaching Council could undertake or commission the creation of a research-based 
Expanded Standards Document, which would update the existing teacher standards and 
provide more detail about the expectations underpinning the standards at different phases 
through a Teacher Expertise Framework. This should begin with the Beginning Teacher 



 18 

Standards (already suggested above), ensuring it is closely aligned with the expectations set 
out for initial teacher training courses. (Approved)  
 
→ As different parts of the Expanded Standards Document emerge, NCERD could design 
courses to include on their Moodle platform, which supports teachers to reach the 
expectations within the included framework. E.g. Assessment (Proficient Teacher level) or 
Mathematics Pedagogy (Accomplished Teacher level). [Proposal for MoE consideration] 
 
 

3.5. Certification 
 
Creating a certification system in which teachers are formally assessed against increasingly 
challenging expectations has enormous potential for the status of the profession, for linked 
career development opportunities for teachers, for managing the deployment of suitably 
skilled teachers across the country, and for teacher accountability. It provides recognition of 
teacher competence, which will motivate teachers to improve and be motivating for those 
who achieve it. Its design, implementation and ongoing costs would need to be planned out 
and carefully budgeted for, but it would be worth the investment in the mid-to-long term.  
 
On successfully meeting the expectations at a particular stage (let’s take the ‘proficient 
teacher’ stage from the Standards as an example), teachers could be awarded a certificate of 
‘Proficient Teacher of Guyana’ at a ceremony, add the letters ‘PToG’ after their name in 
correspondence, and have their certification recorded centrally on the Teaching Council’s 
teacher register, to inform the roles for which they were qualified. 
 

International lessons 
 
This certification approach is taken in a number of countries, notably the USA, where the 
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards assesses teachers who apply for Board 
Certification against detailed standards, and England, where the Chartered College of 
Teaching assesses teachers against their standards for ‘Chartered Teacher’ Status. In both 
countries, teacher pay is deregulated, so the certificates are used to indicate quality with 
which to negotiate individual contracts. In Singapore, in order to be promoted to ‘Senior 
Teacher’, ‘Lead Teacher’ or ‘Master Teacher’, teachers must go through an accreditation 
process to show that they meet certain standards thresholds in terms of their knowledge 
and skills. 
 
However, such certification is only of value if it is considered to be a valid and reliable 
measure of teaching quality. Scotland’s Chartered Teacher Scheme was discontinued despite 
strong buy-in from teacher unions, governments, and employing authorities because the 
credibility of the assessment process for certification was not clearly established, and 
therefore, “the widely held view is that the existing cohort of chartered teachers does not 
singularly represent the best teachers in Scotland” (MacCormac review, 2011). The 
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership’s ‘Highly Accomplished’ and ‘Lead 
Teacher’ standards for teacher certification have had a number of benefits for the teachers 
that have achieved them and the schools in which they work, but the comparability of 



 19 

standards across the country has been questioned. This is because it is individual states that 
assess and award certification to teachers, each interpreting the standards differently, rather 
than the AITSL itself (Invargson, 2018). 
 
These experiences in Scotland and Australia speak to the importance of: 

• taking time to clearly define the knowledge, skills, behaviours and experiences that 
are expected at different stages for different subject specialisms and phases as part 
of a teacher expertise framework; 

• doing so based on research evidence about what makes for effective teaching to 
ensure the framework and resulting certification process is valid; 

• clearly defining the evidence teachers need to present or demonstrate to be 
certified at each stage for the sake of transparency; 

• training assessors in the accreditation process so that it is reliable. 
 

The relationship with CARICOM 
 
Basing such a certification process on the Guyanese Standards (which are similar to the 
CARICOM standards) is consistent with the above, so long as they are either expanded or 
supported by a more detailed teacher expertise framework that defines expectations at each 
stage. Australia’s experience in particular, raises a question about the comparability of 
certification across the CARICOM region. If any other states are less rigorous in their 
application of these standards, then any shared certification or status (e.g. ‘proficient 
teacher’) will lose its value.  
 
One way of avoiding this problem would be to make Guyana’s certification system uniquely 
Guyanese while at the same time being based on similar standards by adding the teacher 
expertise framework and including ‘of Guyana’ in the name of each certificate (e.g. 
‘Proficient Teacher of Guyana’ or ‘PToG’, rather than just ‘Proficient Teacher’). Another 
would be to work with CARICOM to develop a more detailed framework and robust 
accreditation system to support the standards at different stages and to jointly train 
assessors to ensure comparability across the region. 
 

Organisational responsibilities 
 
In most countries that have introduced advanced teacher certification (beyond the initial 
teaching qualification), this function has not been fulfilled by the Teaching Council but an 
additional body (a ‘College’ an ‘Institute’ or a ‘Board’). The Teaching Councils (and General 
Medical Council in the case of medicine) oversee the standards of initial teacher training and 
entry to the profession but not recognition of development beyond that. 
 
However, this limits their ability to build a coherent pathway for teachers, which begins with 
initial teacher education. It would also prevent the Teaching Council from being a ‘one-stop 
shop’ for teachers. In Guyana, the Teaching Council could fulfil both functions as part of a 
continuous pathway of certification. This would involve defining clear expectations for the 
contents of initial teacher education and, subsequently, a teacher expertise framework 
aligned with the Beginning Teacher Standards and every stage beyond that. The Teaching 
Council would not be responsible for the design or delivery of Initial Teacher Education or 



 20 

professional development that aligned with the teacher expertise framework but would be 
responsible for designing and overseeing the assessment of these standards and awarding 
subsequent certification.  
 
The proposed responsibilities of the Teacher Council are in bold below. In italics are the 
proposed responsibilities of either the CPCE and UoG (delivery and assessment of ITT), or 
NCERD (design and delivery of professional development programmes aligned with the 
teacher expertise framework). Remaining are the oversight of induction support (training 
mentors, etc.) and the assessment of teachers against the expectations for beginning 
teachers, which should be equivalent to the certificate of completion of induction. Who is 
responsible for these will depend on the new induction policy. 
 
 
        ITT phase   Induction               5-10yrs later                   10yrs+ 
 
Expectations for ITT → Expectations for BTOG       → Expectations for PTOG   → and so on. 
 
Delivery of ITT           → Induction support                → PD for PTOG                     → and so on.  
 
Assessment of ITT     → Assessment of BTOG            → Assessment of PTOG.    → and so on. 
                             Hiring test         
 
 
 
Proposed short-term actions: 
 
→ Hold consultation meetings with teacher unions, teachers, and other key stakeholders to 
elicit their views on the proposal to introduce a standards-based teacher certification 
system, and what factors should be taken into consideration in its design. (Approved) 
 
Proposed medium-term actions: 
 
→ In addition to designing a Teacher Expertise Framework as part of the Expanded 
Standards Document, setting out clear expectations for teachers at different phases, the 
Teaching Council should design or commission an accompanying Teacher Assessment 
Framework that clearly sets out how teachers should evidence their abilities against these 
standards and expectations, as part of their application for certification (or certificate 
renewal – see 3.6). This should start with BToG and PToG in the first instance. It should be 
broad enough to take contextual issues into account. (Approved)  
 
Proposed long-term actions: 
 
→ Once the Teacher Expertise Framework and linked Teacher Assessment Framework are 
complete for BToG and PToG, the Teaching Council should train assessors and run a pilot 
certification programme to evaluate its practicability, reliability, validity and financial 
sustainability. (Approved) 
 



 21 

→ Based on the learnings from the pilot programme, a decision should be made about 
whether, when and how to roll out the certification programme fairly, across the country. 
(Approved) 
 
 

3.6. Appraisal and accountability 
 

Current situation 
 
There has been widespread criticism of the teacher appraisal system in Guyana over the 
years. It has been criticized for its lack of objectivity, its lack of direct correlation with 
practical performance standards, and its lack of shared understanding and interpretation of 
articulated competencies. Its value has also been questioned, as appraisal outcomes have 
not influenced teachers’ promotion prospects. As a result, it is not used consistently across 
the country and is an important area to reconsider in any teacher policy reform.  
 
Teacher appraisal can have two main purposes: formative and summative. The same teacher 
observation instruments (and other tools) can be used for both; what differs is the response 
to the appraisal. Guyana’s new appraisal tool is based on the teacher standards and is 
intended to be used as a developmental tool, which is formative in nature. Formative 
appraisal is intended to support the teacher to improve through receiving personalised 
feedback on their teaching. Summative appraisal, on the other hand, is intended to make a 
judgement about a teacher’s performance that will often have some consequence related to 
pay, employment or certification. As the new appraisal tool is not intended to be a 
summative instrument, there is an additional need for consideration of how teachers can be 
recognised for good performance and held accountable for poor performance, where 
necessary.   
 

Summative appraisal 

 
Any judgement about whether a teacher has met the expectations for a teacher certificate, 
such as ‘Proficient Teacher of Guyana’, will involve some form of teacher appraisal. As 
explained above, it’s very important for the credibility of the certification that this appraisal 
process is transparent and reliable.  
 
There are a variety of instruments available, such as teacher portfolios, lesson observations, 
videos of lessons, tests of teacher knowledge, and teacher interviews. None of them are 
perfect; each has its advantages and disadvantages. The Measures of Effective Teaching 
project run by the Gates Foundation (Kane et al., 2013) supported using multiple measures 
to evaluate teacher performance, as it found that relying too heavily on a single measure 
made it more likely that other valued behaviours were overlooked. Which method is 
appropriate to judge a teacher’s abilities related to any particular standard should be based 
on the ability being assessed (be that knowledge, skill, performance, or attitude). For more 
details on different evaluation instruments and their strengths and weaknesses, see Crehan 
(2016). 



 22 

 
What is clear from a variety of evidence and international case studies is that summative 
decisions about a teacher’s performance should not be made by their school-based 
colleagues (including their headteacher). Research from the United States, Kenya and 
Columbia all found that headteachers tend to give consistently high ratings to their staff and 
exercise little discrimination (French et al., 1988; Kremer et al., 2001; Bruns & Luque, 2014). 
Jacob and Lefgren (2008) also found that principals are not very good at distinguishing 
between more and less effective teachers when asked. What is more, giving a headteacher 
responsibility for making a summative appraisal decision that affects a teacher’s career can 
affect the relationship between the two individuals involved and make teachers less likely to 
ask for help (VSO, 2002), as they are incentivized to hide any weaknesses in their practice. 
The same is true for others giving summative appraisal responsibility to colleagues within a 
teacher’s school and can lead to bad feelings among staff (e.g. Tekleselassie, 2005).   
 
Who, then, should make these summative appraisal decisions? Once a certification system 
and related promotion system (see below) are up and running, more senior teachers can be 
tasked with appraising teachers from other schools as part of their additional 
responsibilities. One of the benefits of the National Board Certification process in the USA is 
that board-certified teachers were found to be better at judging other teachers’ 
performance. In the short-term, though, Guyana would need to train up a cohort of expert 
teacher assessors in how to use the teacher expertise framework and associated assessment 
criteria, who would then either visit schools, or evaluate portfolios and videoed lessons from 
a central location. This would be the case for PToG certification and above – whether or not 
this would also be necessary for the BToG certification would depend on the numbers 
involved and associated costs and on the plan for the new induction process. 

 

Accountability and formative assessment 
 
A somewhat controversial proposal, perhaps, is that certification should be the only teacher 
accountability mechanism that relates to teaching quality. Of course, teachers should be 
held accountable for their conduct against a professional code of ethics and removed from 
the teacher register if found to be wanting in this area. But for teacher quality, a 
requirement to be evaluated against the teacher standards and expectations every five years 
should provide enough of an incentive to improve, with enough time between evaluations to 
do the improving and engage with any necessary professional development. This is 
consistent with research which shows that high-performing education systems build their 
human resources by focusing on attracting, training and supporting good teachers rather 
than on firing weak teachers (Asia Society, 2014; Crehan, 2016b). 
 
During these interludes between certification evaluations, formative teacher appraisal by 
colleagues within a teacher’s school should continue to take place, but its emphasis should 
be on supporting the teacher to improve and preparing them for their upcoming evaluation 
against the standards and related expectations. This is consistent with the plan for the new 
teacher appraisal instrument in Guyana to be a developmental tool, allowing supervisors to 
identify ways in which the teachers can improve in relation to the standards. 
 



 23 

When it came to summative appraisal, teachers could choose what level of certification they 
would like to apply for (dependent on their years of experience and existing certification). 
They could either apply for the next level up and be assessed against more challenging 
expectations, or they could choose to be evaluated for recertification against the level that 
they are already at. New Zealand implemented such a system where teachers are required 
to recertify to keep their teacher registration (Haig, 2015), and Ecuador’s teacher career 
system similarly requires that teachers either achieve further promotion to the next career 
stage or re-certify at the same level every four years. If they do not successfully re-certify, 
they are downgraded to the level below (Bruns & Luque, 2014). 
  
Similarly, in Guyana, where a teacher did not meet the standards and related expectations 
for the next level up, their existing evidence could be considered against the standards and 
expectations for their existing level instead, and if satisfactory, their certificate for this could 
be renewed. Where a teacher did not meet the standards and expectations to renew their 
BTOG certificate, they could be given an additional year to improve and try again, after 
which they would lose their teacher registration and, subsequently, their job.  
 
With this structure, teachers who are motivated to improve will see the certification process 
as an opportunity to improve their skills and status and will have the autonomy and available 
professional development to apply for higher-level certification. They are unlikely to perceive 
such a system as controlling. However, the system also includes an ‘exit route’ for those 
teachers who are not willing or able to improve and, therefore, fall below the required 
standards of the profession. 
 
This structure leaves plenty of scope for MoE control of teacher quality. It could be that 
teachers must have at least a BToG certification to remain in teaching, with no further 
certification requirements for them. Or it could be the requirement that teachers apply for 
PToG certification after 5 years in the profession, making that the expected standard for 
more experienced teachers. You could have a certain number of years of experience 
required to apply for the higher levels of certification, or you could leave the timing of 
application up to teachers, allowing the best and the brightest to move up the certification 
ladder more quickly.  
 
As part the implementation of this system, should the MoE choose to pursue it, the 
expectations for existing teachers already in the system will need to be considered. One 
option would be to assess all existing teachers against the Beginning Teacher Standards and 
related expectations. Another would be to drop the requirement for BToG for existing 
teachers, and instead invite those that are interested to apply for the Proficient Teacher 
Certification. Gradually over time, this could then become an expectation for all as a way of 
further upgrading the skills of the existing workforce. All these decisions should be made in 
conversation with the Teaching Unions. 
 
We have considered two thirds of what makes for an effective professional certification 
system for teachers – the professional development framework and the certification 
mechanism. We will now turn to the final requirement – a teacher career structure – before 
considering how such a system can be used to support intelligent deployment of teachers. 
 



 24 

Proposed short-term actions: 
 
→ Establish the new appraisal tool as a developmental tool only, to be used in schools to 
support teachers to identify their learning needs and receive feedback. (Initially approved, 
but I suggest we discuss this again following the headteacher’s comment about not being 
able to do anything about poor/unmotivated teachers.) 
 
Proposed long-term actions:  
 
→ Once the PToG certification system is in place, consider setting an expectation that all 
teachers achieve the PToG certification a certain number of years after receiving their full 
BToG certificate, with a minimum of three years required before application (in addition to 
the induction year). (Approved) 
 
→ For existing teachers who are qualified but do not have a BToG certificate, waive the 
requirement to achieve a BToG certificate but make it an option and then later a 
requirement that they undertake training for PToG certification and pass the certification 
within a longer time frame. (Approved) 
 
→ Once the certification system is in place, set an expectation that teachers certify at the 
next level or recertify against their current level every five years (if financially and practically 
feasible). (Approved) 
 
→ Set an expectation that if teachers fail to certify at the next level, they are assessed 
against their current level instead. If they fail to certify or recertify against the BToG 
expectations, they have one further year to meet these expectations (with external support 
to improve) and then lose their teaching license. (Approved) 
 
This section, in particular, will be of interest to Teacher Unions, and they should be consulted 
– how do we want to phrase this in the document? 
 

3.7. Teacher career structures and pay 
 
Once a certification system is in place that identifies varying levels of teacher expertise, 
alongside a professional development offer that supports teachers to reach these clearly 
defined standards, the possibilities for utilizing and recognizing this expertise are endless. 
This section sets out some initial suggestions and some underlying principles to consider. 

 

The current situation  
 
The recent Public Expenditure Review (PER) found that Guyana is underspending on primary 
and secondary education and on teachers. It also found that Guyana dedicates a lower share 
of education expenditures than international peers to staff compensation. Combine this with 
the fact that high-performing systems tend to benchmark teacher pay against other 
graduate professions and the evidence that it is the salaries of experienced teachers relative 



 25 

to other professions that distinguish countries with higher student achievement (Akiba, 
2012), and you have a strong argument for raising teacher pay across the board in Guyana. 
 
What might help with this cause politically would be the introduction of a teacher register 
with entry requirements and the use of a trusted measure of teaching quality (i.e. 
certification) to link pay to performance. By making certification at different levels a 
requirement for different posts, the Ministry of Finance can be reassured that while raising 
teacher salaries, it is getting good value for money, with the highest-paid teachers also being 
the most skilled.  
 

Linking certification to existing roles 
 
This linking of pay to performance via a robust certification system could be implemented 
with the existing career structure and roles. For example, alongside the existing criteria to 
get a position as a ‘Senior Assistant Master’, the requirement of ‘must have a PToG 
certificate’ could be added. The information about what certification levels different 
teachers have would be recorded centrally on the teacher register managed by the Teaching 
Council, so teachers’ eligibility would be easy to check.  
 
In this model, the certification itself would not come with an additional pay rise – the 
incentive to certify would be that it made one eligible for more highly paid roles. Another 
model would be to grant teachers a small salary uplift when they certify, as well as making 
certification a requirement for promoted posts. Any decisions around the relationship 
between certification and pay should involve the teacher unions and should be budgeted for. 
 

Creating new roles to open up a teaching pathway 
 
One of the oft-rehearsed problems with career structures that have just a single path for 
promotion that leads to school leadership positions is that it doesn’t provide promotional 
opportunities for those teachers who wish to remain in the classroom. Good teachers are, 
therefore, often promoted out of the classroom to the detriment of their pupils, and their 
attention is focused on managerial responsibilities rather than teaching and learning. 
 
To solve this problem and create more opportunities for teachers to develop and utilise their 
teaching expertise, many countries have added new roles into their teacher career structures, 
such as ‘Master Teacher’ or ‘Chartered Teacher’. This is clearly the direction that the CARICOM 
wish to move in, based on the descriptions in the standards document that apply to ‘Proficient 
Teacher’, ‘Accomplished Teacher’ and ‘Lead Teacher’.  
 
If Guyana were to add new promoted posts called ‘Proficient Teacher’, ‘Accomplished Teacher’ 
and ‘Lead Teacher’, which teachers qualified for by achieving the requisite certification, this 
could lead to several problems. Firstly, there would be potential confusion amongst teachers 
about the distinction between the certification ‘Proficient Teacher of Guyana’ and the job 
‘Proficient Teacher’ (where one didn’t guarantee the other). Secondly, it would limit the types 
of promoted posts the Ministry were able to add to the career structure to just three roles, 
limiting flexibility.  
 



 26 

It would, therefore, be better to keep the names in the CARICOM standards as solely referring 
to different levels of certification and to add promoted posts of increasing seniority with 
different names, for example, Mentor Teacher, Senior Teacher, and Master Teacher. Each of 
these could then come with additional and clearly defined responsibilities around supporting 
the development of teaching in their schools and districts, along with extra time to do so (an 
example is set out below). Once the Ministry had determined what the promoted posts would 
be called and what responsibilities they would entail, they could be pegged on the existing 
pay scale to existing posts. For example, it might be decided that a Master Teacher is 
equivalent in responsibility and importance to a Deputy Head A and, therefore, should be paid 
the same salary (budget allowing). All these decisions should be made in conversation with 
the Teacher Unions.  
 
Although this teacher policy framework has addressed just teacher certification and 
promotions, the same processes could be set up for the leadership pathway based on the 
CARICOM standards for school leaders. In this instance, it would need to be a leadership body 
defining leadership expectations and assessing against them for certification purposes rather 
than the Teaching Council.  
 
Example of one possible career ladder (in addition to existing leadership ladder): 
 

• Mentor teacher (requiring PToG certificate) – goal for everyone between 5-10 years 
after BToG, with mentoring, demonstration and appraisal responsibilities. 

• Senior teacher (requiring AToG certificate) – goal for 30-40% of teachers, responsible 
for leading whole school PD, networking with other schools, and appraising PToG 
applications. 

• Master teacher (requiring LToG certificate) – goal for just top 10% of teachers, big 
responsibility, teaching teachers across schools, leading teaching improvement 
programmes within a district, and appraising LToG applications. 

 
 
Proposed long-term actions: 
 
→ Once established, make certification at different levels a requirement for existing job 
roles. (Approved) 
 
→ Introduce a new career pathway, with new roles which are based on being an expert 
teacher, and leading on the development of teaching. These roles should be dependent on 
certification at different levels but have different names to avoid confusion (e.g. Senior 
Teacher). (Approved) 
 
→ The new roles should include new responsibilities, come with additional non-teaching 
time to conduct those responsibilities and be linked to a significant increase in pay. 
(Approved) 
 
→ Consider including a small pay uplift for gaining a new level of certification. [Proposal for 
MoE and MoF consideration] (We haven’t yet discussed this) 
 



 27 

 

3.8. Teacher deployment systems 
 

Current situation 
 
At present, in Guyana, teacher deployment is managed through four different routes: 

• The ACEO’s themselves, who match graduates from CPCE to schools 

• The TSC, who match applicants from the pool that applies to them to schools 

• Regional Education Officers who match teachers to schools in hinterland regions 

• The Boards of individual schools who advertise for teachers to apply directly 
 
This is likely to lead to inefficiencies, with teachers not being aware of all the potential jobs 
available and central authorities not being aware of all the teachers who are looking to move 
jobs. There is also a risk that different procedures are used for selecting candidates, making 
the overall system less transparent and less fair. A centralised deployment system (such as the 
Centralized Choice and Assignment Platform described below) would overcome these issues 
and open up new possibilities for promoting particular jobs and their benefits to suitably 
qualified teachers.  
 
If, on the other hand, this were not politically acceptable at this time, it would still be of great 
benefit to review and align the procedures for placement, transfer and retention across the 
different routes to ensure they were relevant and appropriate. These procedures would need 
to be updated anyway, with the addition of new certification requirements for particular roles. 
 

Centralised choice and assignment platforms 

 
To streamline the deployment and transfer of teachers, including those in permanent and 
temporary positions, the IDB has actively developed online, centralised assignment platforms. 
These digital allocation systems harness the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) and 
matching, allowing governments to effectively organise and meet teachers’ needs while 
ensuring transparency throughout the process. Traditional decentralised processes have faced 
scrutiny due to their high inefficiencies and risk of corruption.  
 
Recent advancements in machine learning have enabled the use of market information to 
identify optimal opportunities for teacher-school matching. Also, the unified promotion of 
both temporary and permanent vacancies on a single digital platform significantly reduces 
time and effort costs for teachers. They no longer need to invest time and resources to visit 
various districts and schools to gather necessary information during the application process.  
 
These matching algorithms have been extensively studied and tested in various contexts, such 
as in Ecuador (IADB, 2022), Peru (IADB, 2022), the United States (Abdulkadiroglu et al., 2017), 
England (Terrier et al., 2021) and France (Fack et al. 2019).  These applications have resulted 
in increased efficiency and effectiveness in matching teachers with schools, leading to 
improved overall well-being. 
 

https://publications.iadb.org/en/potential-smart-matching-platforms-teacher-assignment-case-ecuador
https://publications.iadb.org/en/can-information-school-attributes-and-placement-probabilities-direct-search-and-choice-evidence
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20151425
https://www.nber.org/papers/w29600
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20151422


 28 

Alongside centralized assignment platforms, a formula-based approach is employed to ensure 
the equitable distribution of teachers, focusing specifically on the most vulnerable schools. By 
accounting for the unique conditions and circumstances of each school, these formulas 
guarantee that students receive consistent teaching resources, regardless of administrative 
capacities in different regions. 
 
Over the past three years, the Education Division of the IDB has formed several partnerships 
with education systems in Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru, effectively modernizing their systems and 
facilitating practical application. In Ecuador, the IDB supported reforms to the algorithm and 
rules governing the assignment of teachers to schools, leading to considerable efficiency gains 
(Elacqua et al., 2021).  
 
The IDB has also supported the Quiero Ser Maestro Inter-Cultural Bilingüe competition, 
highlighting inter-cultural bilingual teacher deployment (IDB, 2022). In an effort to address 
inefficiencies and inequalities in teacher allocation, the IDB has designed cost-effective 
solutions on allocation system platforms in Peru and Ecuador, integrating techniques from the 
field of behavioural economics.  
 
Additionally, the IDB has closely collaborated with the Municipalities of Rio de Janeiro and 
Recife and the government of Ecuador to develop more efficient formulas for identifying 
vacancy needs and distributing teaching hours at the school level. 
 
 
Proposed short-term actions: 
 
→ Review the existing deployment processes, and align and redesign the procedures for 
placement, transfer, and retention across the different routes, to ensure they are relevant and 
appropriate. (Already commenced) 
 
Proposed medium-term actions: 
 
→ Design a centralized choice and assignment system for teachers, allowing for increased 
efficiency, equity and effectiveness in matching teachers with schools. Include within this a 
mechanism for headteachers to choose from a shortlist of candidates. (Approved) 
 
 
 

3.9. Teacher deployment to hinterland regions 
 
 

Current situation 
 
The uneven distribution of credentialed teachers among schools in the LAC region exacerbates 
social disparities (Elacqua et al., 2020). In fact, a considerable number of students are taught 
by provisional, uncredentialed teachers who lack the necessary qualifications and training to 
instruct in their respective subjects. This scenario restricts the learning opportunities of 

https://publications.iadb.org/en/market-design-approach-teacher-assignment-evidence-ecuador
https://publications.iadb.org/en/potential-smart-matching-platforms-teacher-assignment-case-ecuador
https://publications.iadb.org/en/altruism-or-money-reducing-teacher-sorting-using-behavioral-strategies-in-peru
https://publications.iadb.org/en/order-effects-and-employment-decisions-experimental-evidence-nationwide-program
https://publications.iadb.org/es/el-problema-de-la-escasez-de-docentes-en-latinoamerica-y-las-politicas-para-enfrentarlo


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millions of students, primarily those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, indigenous 
communities, and Afro-descendant populations. According to Elacqua & Marotta (2020), one 
adverse effect of teacher shortages is that incumbent teachers often end up teaching at 
multiple schools, which has a negative impact on learning and equity (Elacqua & Marotta, 
2020). Moreover, Bertoni et al. (2018) find that another harmful consequence of teacher 
shortages is the increased likelihood of uncertified and underqualified teachers instructing a 
high proportion of students, especially in more disadvantaged contexts. 
 

In Guyana, qualified teachers are also unevenly distributed. The hinterland regions have both 
higher student-teacher ratios than the rest of the country and a smaller proportion of qualified 
teachers, creating unequal learning opportunities for students. This remains the case despite 
the introduction of a Remote Area Incentive and additional credit towards promotion, which 
have been used to attract teachers to these positions. There is, therefore, a need for further 
systems and strategies that address this disparity through a combination of targeted teacher 
recruitment in hinterland and riverine regions, and a careful design of incentives to encourage 
qualified teachers from elsewhere to move to and teach in these regions. This section will 
focus on the latter. 
 

Addressing disincentives 
 
Some of the factors that deter teachers from the coast from applying for jobs in more rural 
areas cannot be changed, but others can. It would be helpful to conduct some focus groups 
with teachers of different age groups and sexes to identify what would make them consider 
moving to the hinterland regions, and identify any disincentives that could be mitigated, as 
well as testing out potential incentive packages.  
 
Elacqua & Rosa (2023) analyzed the preferences for certain school attributes among in-
service teachers In San Paulo, Brazil. They found that the school’s distance from the 
teacher’s home, its average test scores, and teacher composition played a central role in 
teacher preferences, and that preferences varied by demographic. Location was particularly 
important for female and older teachers (>30 years). Women were also more likely to 
choose schools with a lower percentage of disadvantaged students, and younger teachers 
(<30 years of age) were more likely to request transfers to schools with more experienced 
teachers. It would be extremely useful to have such data for Guyanese teachers, even if in 
qualitative form. 
 
Because while we can’t change a schools’ location, or its test scores in the short term, we 
can target those who are less sensitive to these factors. For example, location is less of an 
issue for teachers under 30, and men. As alluded to in the recruitment section, it seems 
likely that this is due to family considerations. We could, therefore, target our hinterland 
incentives package at men and women in their mid to late 20s, before they ‘settle down’; 
not by setting requirements by age, but by targeting a particular stage of career 
development (e.g. those with PTOG certification – see ‘career development incentives’ 
below for more detail).  
 
We could also consider what could be done to mitigate the downsides of these 
unchangeable factors, for example, by asking female teachers whether not wanting to work 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h4dlElgFB4dEjFmDKaEKe31NE9psNaYH/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h4dlElgFB4dEjFmDKaEKe31NE9psNaYH/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h4dlElgFB4dEjFmDKaEKe31NE9psNaYH/view
https://publications.iadb.org/en/teacher-policies-incentives-and-labor-markets-chile-colombia-and-peru-implications-equality


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in disadvantaged schools has anything to do with their personal safety, which could 
potentially be addressed with the additional security measures in schools. 
 
More straightforwardly, it will be important to ensure that any factors that mitigate the less 
desirable features of rural postings – such as security, housing and travel allowance – are 
consistently present ‘in practice’ and not just in theory. 
 

Financial incentives and their communication 
 
Various types of incentive schemes can influence the geographic redistribution of talent, and 
should focus on prioritizing the most vulnerable areas. The design of teacher incentives 
should be guided by two key considerations: the nature of the incentives offered and the 
characteristics of the affected teacher population. 
 
Economic incentives, such as salary compensations, have proven to effectively motivate 
teachers to relocate to less desirable areas (Bobba et al., 2022). In addition, the design of 
other types of incentives, such as housing provisions, career advancement opportunities, 
and financial aid for continuing education, can also influence teacher location decisions (Ye 
et al., 2023). Considering these diverse compensation options allows for the creation of 
complex incentive schemes tailored to specific contexts, acting as a compensatory 
mechanism for schools with longstanding performance issues due to their prevailing 
circumstances. Such a system must be carefully designed so that schools are not publicly 
marked out as being ‘less desirable’, as this could have the opposite effect to that which is 
intended. 
 
It is also important to note that these schemes need to be properly communicated, as a lack 
of information among the target population has traditionally been a problem. Peru is an 
excellent example of a country offering multiple types of incentives to encourage individuals 
to accept less attractive positions, including factors like multigrade schools and geographical 
location (rural/urban), potentially resulting in salary increases of up to 30% (Bertoni et al., 
2021). 
 
The target audience for these incentive schemes must be carefully considered during policy 
design. IDB studies find that incentives targeted to ‘high performing’ teachers can effectively 
retain teachers in disadvantaged schools (IADB, 2022). Under the model suggested in this 
teacher policy framework, this would mean making rural and other equity-driven incentives 
dependent on different levels of certification. Incorporating performance criteria, like 
certification, in the design of incentive schemes is crucial to attract the right teachers to 
disadvantaged schools.  
 

Career development incentives 
 
The Chilean Pedagogical Excellence Assignment (AEP) is one of the few schemes in the LAC 
region to include both a quality mark for teachers and a bonus scheme for high-performing 
teachers, which pays them more to teach in disadvantaged schools. While there is some 
recent evidence it improves retention of high-performing teachers already in such schools, 
two studies on AEP found that it failed to encourage more good teachers to transfer to them 

https://christopherneilson.github.io/work/documents/TeacherSchoolChoice/BELNN_Feb2022.pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xo9V1ImliWKWG3DYAycztM5yNiP04RLo/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xo9V1ImliWKWG3DYAycztM5yNiP04RLo/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PUDT-QbZVp52BpnURb9K0mYjudNWR5LF/view


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(Berlinski & Ramos, 2017; Elacqua et al, 2023). What is more, high-performing teachers 
“seem to use the award as a quality signal to stay or move to relatively high-achieving 
schools” (Elacqua et al., 2023), suggesting there are risks as well as benefits to formally 
recognizing teacher quality. 
 
This makes it more important to include additional career-based incentives as well as 
financial ones, and to have more than one ‘rung’ in a teacher career ladder. Where there is 
just a single ‘rung’ or higher level of certification above being a qualified teacher (as there is 
in Chile), achieving it removes any incentive to continue to put in further effort to improve. It 
also reduces the levers available to pull from a policy perspective. Adopting the career 
structure proposal in this framework, in which jobs are linked to certification at three levels 
in addition to the initial teacher qualification, gives scope for some career-development 
based incentives. 
 
This approach has been used in South Korea, where teachers gain advantages in seeking 
promotion to the highest levels of the career structure if they have taught in a 
disadvantaged area. This is described as playing a critical role in ensuring students have 
equity of access to high quality teachers, because of teachers’ desire for higher status and 
salary (Kang & Hong, 2008). The same could be set up in Guyana, using both a financial and 
career-based incentive to get good teachers out to remote areas. 
 
One example would be to target teachers who have achieved the PToG certification, by 
offering a range of ‘mentor teacher’ posts in remote schools, which paid more than ‘mentor 
teacher’ posts elsewhere. So far this is no different to Chile’s policy of paying good teachers 
more for working in disadvantaged schools, but the additional layers to the proposed career 
structure means that more varied incentive can be added. It could be a requirement, for 
example, of certification at the AToG level, that a teacher spends at least two years in a 
rural/disadvantaged school (or five years at a more advantaged school).  
 
Part of the requirement for their AToG portfolio could be a report on an improvement 
project or research project with a focus on addressing disadvantage, giving them a 
meaningful reason to be there. Once the MoE had decided on the number of ‘mentor 
teacher’ posts available in these regions in any given year, it could run a recruitment 
campaign and then offer training to successful applicants as a group (either as a single group 
or one per region). This group would then stay in touch over the two-year programme, 
through joint training sessions that further prepared them for their AtOG application, 
creating a cohort effect. By focusing on those with PToG certification, which teachers apply 
for 5-10 years after their full registration with the Teaching Council, this programme would 
target competent teachers in their mid-twenties. This group might be convinced to live in a 
rural location for a couple of years before they have children to help them with securing 
their AtOG certification, making them eligible for more senior posts when they returned to 
work.  
 
This is just one example of the many possible career-based incentives that could be set up, 
once you have a robust certification system in place.  
 



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Conclusion 
 
In conclusion, incentive schemes should carefully integrate a mix of incentives targeting the 
desired population, specifically higher-performing teachers. Program visibility is also crucial. 
Teachers cannot respond if they are unaware of available incentives. This is where 
combining the incentive program with centralized assignment platforms becomes 
advantageous. The complexity of the incentive schemes can be conveyed by displaying 
expected salary information on the platform, considering the characteristics of both the 
applying teacher and the displayed school. 
 
Finally, the cohesive implementation of the described policies is important. While these 
policies do not necessarily have to be implemented together, the combined effect of their 
full implementation offers significant advantages. As previously mentioned, information 
delivery can be simplified and centralized, resulting in transparent, efficient, and equitable 
processes. 
 
Proposed short-term actions –  
 
→ Conduct focus groups with teachers of different ages and sexes to identify their reasons 
for wanting or not wanting to be deployed to remote areas, and to test out different 
incentive suggestions with them. [Proposal for MoE consideration] 
 
Proposed medium-term actions –  
 
→ Design a variety of multi-faceted incentives packages (including bonuses, career 
opportunities and other benefits) targeted at teachers with different levels of certification. 
[Proposal for MoE consideration] 
 
→ Make these incentives packages visible to teachers, by including them in the deployment 
and transfer process (possibly through a Centralized Choice and Assignment System). 
[Proposal for MoE consideration] 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 33 

 
 
 
 

4. Possible organizational responsibilities  
 
4.1. Teacher management board/working group. 

• design and run targeted recruitment programs based on analysis of needs.  

• decide on how many promoted teacher posts are available, and where these are. 

• collaborate with TSC and SB on design of transparent deployment and transfer 
procedures. 
 

4.2. CPCE –  

• initial teacher training  

• assessment of ITT and recommendation of teachers for provisional licensing 

• assessment of suitability for full registration at end of induction?   
 
4.3. Teaching Council – 

• review of ITE courses,  

• develop standardized expectations for all ITT courses  

• issue provisional licenses to teachers based on CPCE recommendation 

• set up and maintain a register of licensed teachers, with records of quals and certs. 

• design teacher expertise framework or expanded Standards document 

• design certification evaluation framework aligned with the teacher expertise 
framework and standards. 

• oversee assessment against the standards and expectations at different levels, and 
issue certification.  

 
4.4. National Accreditation Council –  

• Accredit ITT courses based on the Teaching Council’s expectations? 

• Accredit NCERD standards-based courses based on the Teaching Council’s teacher 
expertise framework? 

 
4.5. NCERD –  

• review existing practice in the running of learning communities  

• design and deliver training on running professional learning communities 

• design courses based on the teacher expertise framework from the Teaching Council 

• deliver these courses, and/or broker other organizations to do the same. 
 
4.5. Teaching Service Commission and School Board – 

• collaborate with Teacher Management Board/Working group to design transparent 
procedures for deployment and transfer, possibly using a Centralized Choice and 
Assignment System. 



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• investigate concerns of professional misconduct, and where appropriate, recommend 
to the Teaching Council that teachers be ‘struck off’ the register. 

• manage the appeals process for teachers who are struck off.