Teachers, I beg you think again

Aug 22, 2018 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I began teaching at the age of sixteen years when my father lost the whole of his left arm in a vehicular accident. I was the eldest of ten brothers and sisters, I left Buxton Government Secondary School on that day of the accident, knowing my duty had been upgraded to breadwinner for our family, since my mother had serious heart problems and was also plagued by hypertension.
At that age, as a pupil teacher, I was receiving a salary of ninety six dollars and twelve cents ($96.12) per month in 1970 and taught during this period at the Paradise Primary School on the East Coast Demerara. I took those sealed envelopes with that cash unopened for two years to my mother, I woke up at three o’clock every morning to get to the La Penitence wharf to purchase fish and shrimp, which I sold on the market at Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara, and at home, we planted a kitchen garden and reared poultry and pigs.
In school, I worked with the children writing the Common Entrance Examination, and was responsible for the school’s agriculture (vegetable garden) programme. I functioned also as the school’s athletic, football and cricket coach. I would eventually leave the job in 1972 in search of a better paying job.
In 1990, I returned to teaching at the Golden Grove Secondary School as an untrained teacher receiving $2500 per month performing the duties of History, English, Agriculture and Physical Education Teacher. During this period, I also sold my poems to the public to earn extra cash.
At the end of one year, I left the job again due to poor remuneration. Four years later, I would join the University of Guyana to pursue and successfully complete a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, only to continue teaching, counselling, organising and advocating for community development nationwide.
The poor remuneration over the years dates back to the colonial era and is not the making of the present administration; this Union’s leaders and teachers must recognise and make decisions within that framework. Males are not attracted to the profession due to this factor and it is affecting the performance of boys in school, who are not seeing significant numbers of male role models in their classrooms.
I am surprised that intelligent people can make decisions to strike when we all know the treasury is incapable of meeting the demands of the teachers. With the current state of our economy and future prospects of our oil and gas industry, the Guyana Teachers’ Union must not seek to hold the nation’s children at ransom.
Ras Aaron Blackman
Social Worker

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