Letter of the Day | Guidance counsellors are being short-changed

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The minister of finance and the public service recently indicated the government’s intention to implement a pay-for-performance system for public sector employees, including teachers, focusing on efficiency, service delivery, and productivity gains.

As a guidance counsellor and an officer I should be going for home visits and attending events. Home visits are a vital requirement to the job description. But there have been cases where people are not employed as guidance counsellors if they do not have a driver’s licence.

However, I am extremely disgruntled about how we are treated in the system when it comes to reimbursement for travelling. The school bursars and the Ministry of Education expect us to perform duties effectively and produce results and yet refuse to both approve travelling allowance or compensate us properly.

When an officer travels the amount that is reimbursed is decided by either the bursar or the ministry. This is calculated based on the shortest route to the destination. But how realistic is this?

There are not enough words to describe the state of many of our roads. Yet we are expected to take the shortest route whether you have to drive through rivers, gullies, deserted areas, or to endanger one to get to the destination even when a better route is available. This is unfair and unreasonable.

When a alternative, but a better route is taken we are either not compensated or given less money. This is because that’s not the shortest route stated on Google Maps to get to the destination.

On top of that there are bursars who put a cap on the number of visits to be done in a given month. I wonder how effectively can we address the numerous cases we are being flooded with, when you have to delay visits because if you do them and you are over the mileage cap for the month you will not be reimbursed.

Productivity goes hand in hand with compensation. How motivating is it for employees to be productive when they are short-changed. I know many guidance counsellors who do visits on their personal time and don’t even claim for it. If travelling officers should refrain from doing these visits it certainly would affect their performance. The sacrifices and compassion of many employees go unnoticed, unappreciated and unrecognised.

When will our leaders stop to really think about how their decisions are affecting the people they serve. Those at the top often forget that those below are also human beings in need of care, fairness and justice.

ROCHINA ANDERSON