Low-paid teachers deserve a Christmas bonus

Dec 15, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
This letter serves as an urgent call to President Bharrat Jagdeo for all teachers in Guyana. It is sad indeed to know that nothing extra will be going into our pockets this year as 2008 draws to a close.

Every single year since I began teaching I can remember getting some extra cash for the Christmas holidays in my December paycheck. We have learnt that this year it will not be so. There would be no bonus for teachers in Guyana this Christmas.

I could remember a Kaieteur News columnist’s article a few weeks ago which solidified the rumours that teachers weren’t getting any bonuses this year-end.

The article, to paraphrase, said that if anyone desires more money then they should become a soldier or policeman. It is known that every single year the police and the army collect tax-free salaries and additional bonuses.

They are also treated and served by no other than His Excellency. Yes, the police and army have an important role to play in protecting our nation from criminal activities and also our borders, but in this country we hardly do anything much for our teachers. This year’s World Teacher’s Day theme was ‘Teachers Matter!’

I am sure that every teacher in Guyana lives from paycheck to paycheck, scrambling to make ends meet.
At this time of year, workers within the private sector would be getting annual bonuses and other perks of the season from their employers.

What are our public servants getting? What are our teachers getting? We don’t want to become members of the Guyana Police Force, as the newspaper columnist jokingly recommended, but we want to continue serving the nation by nurturing the young minds and teaching them, so that they can be ready and fit for the world which awaits them — maybe a world in which many of them will turn to the Guyana Police Force for employment.

The Guyana Teachers’ Union is partly to blame for this mess we are currently in this year end — without anything extra.

Their deal with the government, which is a multi-year one, has affected the government from giving any additional increases to teachers this year, even if they wanted to. It will only change if President Jagdeo takes it upon himself to effect increases for all teachers this Christmas.

Apparently Mr Colwin King and his cohorts are soothsayers for all teachers in Guyana —who agreed to that multi-year deal, even though cost of living nationally and internationally has been up, up, up in recent months, and did not cater for the current scenario of high cost of living and high prices we are experiencing now at home.

That deal, in my view, was not a good one. Maybe it should have been renewed annually.
The GTU should have never consented to such a deal for teachers, since they know fully well the state of the world’s economies and the hard times we live in which seem to be getting much harder.

Teachers themselves too are to blame for sitting on their derrières and staying quiet on these issues. Teachers always want change and betterment but are never there to actually voice their concerns and speak out.

A political party recently called upon teachers with grievances to show up at their headquarters.
There, their concerns would’ve been taped and documented. No one turned up. Then how can we teachers be respected and looked after properly in this country?

There are different categories of teachers: those who don’t want to get involved because of fear of victimisation, those who really don’t care, those that do not want to make enemies with those around them, those who are comfortable with their current situation and those who want to speak out and be heard, come what may! Change will only come from those who belong in the last category, so teachers must wake up and speak out!

If we aren’t willing to help ourselves then do we expect help to automatically and magically come to us?
I know things are even ‘tight’ with the government after having spent $500 million on CARIFESTA X.

President Jagdeo also intervened and saved the GTU National Schools Athletic Championships with some $8 million or so.

That event, after having been given so much money to carry through, turned out to be one big ruckus in the end.

‘Tis the season for giving, Mr. President, so please give generously to our teachers. Give to one of the most underpaid sets of people in the whole world. It’s high time to ‘big up’ our teachers.

Leon Jameson Suseran

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Low-paid teachers deserve a Christmas bonus

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