Latest update February 20th, 2025 12:39 PM
An open letter to the Ministry of Education
Dear Editor,
It’s that time again when teachers will be taking a much-needed vacation, but time flies, and soon we’ll be preparing for back-to-school. While normal people will be deciding what outfits to wear to their jobs, teacher will be deciding how to cut expenditure on their school uniforms in half so as to accommodate the buying of school supplies. Child-friendly classrooms don’t make themselves after all.
The Ministry of Education, on average allocates a few sheets of cardboard and markers to each classroom per school year. That certainly cannot facilitate a child-friendly classroom.
So teachers, underpaid as they are, are left to buy markers, cardboard, foam sheets, stickers, print-stencils, and crayons. Then there are paste, blinds, and table cloths. Let’s not forget paint to cover a school-year of wear and tear. In my view, furniture should be painted every year, especially in nursery and primary.
I am certain the Ministry of Education is aware of the shortfall in materials left on teachers to make up. Why are teachers, who find it difficult to make ends meet in their homes, be also unfairly saddled with struggling to equip their classrooms? Why should there be a commonly held sentiment by fellow teachers, that if the proper equipping of a classroom is left to the Ministry of Education it would never get done?
There is not a school-year that goes by that I don’t spend less than $15000 getting my classroom ready. Let me add that the latter figure is modest in comparison to what other teachers reportedly spend. Sometimes walls have to be painted before aids can go up; ceiling have to be painted so as to lift the brightness of the already small space.
As teachers we go those extra miles. To this day my husband doesn’t understand why I have to take materials to my workplace, my school. He doesn’t have to take materials he bought to his job to do his work. He would ask why I, a teacher, am left to do what strikes him as ridiculous. “Aren’t those materials supposed to be provided by your Ministry?
My husband thinks it’s ridiculous, but the Ministry of Education’s stand on the above issue warrants a much stronger word: ‘ludicrous.’ The Ministry has informed parents that no materials are to be given to teachers; and teachers are forbidden to ask parents for materials.
Does the Ministry think that teachers would solicit direly needed materials for their classrooms and use it for themselves? What exactly am I going to do with markers and cardboard and foam should I solicit it from parents, decorate my home? My children are all in primary school and when shopping for my classroom I make sure to throw in a few things for their teacher’s classroom.
What is even more insulting and ridiculous are Monday mornings when checks are made, and classrooms are not laced with teaching aids and other materials teachers would be written-up, and those records are there forever without any thought as to if that teacher could have afforded to equip her classroom. To talk about unfair is to talk about this education system and teachers.
As teachers we have been too quiet, and we have accepted mediocrity for far too long to the point where some of us believe this is all we deserve. To my fellow teachers I say: Be encouraged and speak out! Write and let your voices be heard.
Take a page from Sir Mars and his team. Let us stand together and demand what we rightfully deserved. Write under anonymity if need be, since we know that through vindictiveness you can be targeted.
The Guyana Government needs to start doing better for the sake of the Guyanese schoolchildren and the Nation’s future. Things within the school system can change. Of course, we are not expecting betterment in a day. I’m hoping the President is reading this.
And if I were before him I would implore: “Mr. President, they are small things, inexpensive things that can improve the lives of teachers and improve the grades of children, please help.”
Sincerely,
A Guyanese teacher and educator
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