Why close the schools for union meeting attendance?

Dec 08, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
At mid-day Monday 5/12/16, I noticed with much surprise that all the schools in the Corriverton area where I live were being closed for the day. Upon inquiry I was told that the schools were being closed to allow teachers to attend a Guyana Teachers Union meeting. Assuming that what I was told is correct (and I have no reason to doubt it), I am forced, as a very concerned citizen, to question the wisdom and propriety of such a (mal)-practice at a time when our schools are performing so badly (as can be gleaned from the national examinations results, especially in Maths and English.)
I am by no means ‘anti-union’; (indeed as a High School Teacher in New Amstardam, I used to be the Secretary of the Berbice Branch of what was then known as the AMM (Association of Masters and Mistresses), the equivalent of a union for High School teachers, but we used to keep our meetings in the afternoons or week-ends. I am firmly of the view that the students should not suffer nor the parents inconvenienced in order to facilitate a Union meeting which can just as easily be held in the afternoon after the normal closure of schools or at week-ends or during school holidays (the Xmas break is just around the corner!) I plead with our dear teachers and the GTU to please reconsider their modus operandi with a view to not robbing the poor students of valuable classroom work nor impose inconveniences on the hardworking parents.
Nowrang Persaud

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