Zero tolerance for violence against teachers – GTU General Secretary

Jan 15, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) Coretta McDonald on Friday said the Union has a zero tolerance for violence against teachers. In an interview with Big Smith News, McDonald who is also a Member of Parliament (MP) said that the cases of violence against teachers have increased.

Within the last week, there were two incidents of parents assaulting teachers at two primary schools, Graham’s Hall and St. Angela’s.

“We have too many young parents, young adults who have become parents and they themselves have not been developed and so to bring up their children now, they don’t have the prerequisite skills to groom their children and because of that double factor, the slightest thing, rather than coming to talk about issues, we resort to a ‘buse out, a fight, a cuss out, as if that is the only way of resolving our issues, and so that is why I said we have to start reorienting our parents,” she explained.

General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) Coretta McDonald.

McDonald noted that the Union, the Ministry of Education and Social Services have to work together to understand and fix that which is occurring in society.

The GTU General Secretary described the recent occurrences at the two primary schools as sad but acknowledged that it is not a new phenomenon.

“Assaulting teachers is totally wrong, we have zero tolerance for that,” McDonald asserted while adding “…when you assault teachers, you are putting your child at even more risk because you know what happens, your child suffers in the long run, because every teacher depending on the level that child is at, every teacher would now be walking on thin ice when they have to deal with your child,” she explained.

McDonald said by resorting to violence, the problems are not automatically solved. “And so here it is, we are creating many more problems in our society and we got to fix it and we got to get to the point where we return to the drawing table and fix the problem,” she stressed.

Meanwhile, McDonald is of the view that teachers must be positioned to defend themselves. As such, the GTU representative said that classes on self-defence are a possibility because “we can’t continue to allow these things to happen.”

She said there are two teachers, one formerly of St. Agnes Primary and the other from Winfer Gardens Primary schools who have scars on their faces as a result of assault perpetuated by parents.

Further, McDonald is advocating for more campaigns against violence in schools and against teachers.

Kaieteur News had reported that on Wednesday and Thursday two teachers, one from the Graham’s Hall Primary and another from St. Angela’s Primary, were beaten by parents in the schools.

In light of the recent events, the Ministry in a statement had indicated that it will take all appropriate actions to ensure teachers work in a safe and secured environment.

Such actions, the Ministry mentioned, includes prohibiting violent parents or guardians from having access to the school premises, transferring any learner out of a school whose parents commit acts of violence on teachers or any other sanctions that are deemed necessary, while encouraging the police or any other institution or authorities to take whatever action the law prescribes.

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Coretta McDonald., Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Member of Parliament (MP), teachers, violence

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