As cliché as it sounds, teaching is really the mother of all professions but our teachers are more than often given the short end of the proverbial straw. In most counties throughout the world, teachers are overworked and underpaid.
We recently saw the power of teachers, in Guyana, when the 2018-2019 school year commenced. Schools had to be closed down and students sent away because the majority of the teachers decided to take to the streets demanding better working conditions, benefits as well as increased salaries. This move came about after almost three years of failed negotiations between the Education Ministry and the Guyana Teachers Union.
The threat of another strike, on a larger scale, hangs overhead since the government is being accused of strong-arming the Union. However, the teachers are not going down without a fight. They are prepared to close the classrooms and take to the streets once more to have their cries and pleas for a better life heard.
Before we get into the actual strike
and the impending strike action, let us looks at the factors that would have led to the teachers making such a drastic move. In 2015, the multiyear salary and benefits agreement with the previous administration came to an end and the GTU then went to the bargaining table with the government to negotiate another one.
Bear in mind, the APNU-AFC government during it’s 2015 General Elections campaign promised to make teachers the highest paid public servants. When the time came to negotiate all of the proposals by the GTU were basically shot down but the government which caused President David Granger to order the establishment of a task force to deal with the issue. The task force made a number of recommendations, which are yet to be acted upon by the government.
Following the recommendations, the GTU went back to the table with MOE and proposed a 40 per cent increase in 2016, 45 per cent in 2017 and 50 per cent in 2018, 2019 and 2020. However, they compromised during the negotiation phase and agreed to accept a 40 per cent to serve as a base from 2016 with 5 per cent incremental increase for the remaining years.
MOE once again shot down almost all of the requests by the Union which led to the strike at the commencement of the 2018-2019 school year. The teachers handed over keys to the schools during the week leading up to the opening of school on September 3. They went out in their numbers on the street and picketed the various Regional Education Departments. The demonstrations lasted for four days and were called off when the government agreed to take the negotiations to arbitration.
Now that the issue is at the arbitration level, the government is still set in their ways to “bully the GTU”. The government selected the Chair of the Arbitration Panel without the consultation of the GTU and rejected their proposals for the Chair. This has led to the threat of another strike since the GTU feels the Junior Social Protection Minister, Keith Scott, who had earlier referred to the striking teachers as “selfish and uncaring”, is bullying it.
The teachers are ready to go on the streets again if the need arises.
Teachers over the years have given selflessly to the development of the nation’s children. They do not ever stop working because they are weighed down by so many records that need to be completed on a daily basis. Lesson plans are a major “headache” to teachers since they are required to write one for every class they teach.
Additionally, teachers are tasked with babysitting the children and ensuring that they are safe while on the school’s compound. They also have weekly, monthly, termly and annual journals to write up. They have to get classrooms ready and they do that quite often by delving into their own pockets.
(Times Sunday Magazine)
