The strike continues

Feb 14, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The President and other sympathizers of the government are concerned about teachers being on strike and its effects on children who are left on their own. The Ministry of Education has also expressed concerns about learning loss on the part of the young ones.

It is a fair position, one with obvious merits, but there is similar certainty that teachers currently engaged in strike action would have their own position as a counter: how about some fairness to us for the effort that is put in? Whether the minister or a teacher is speaking and highlighting their own priorities, there is a compelling case that could be made for either side.

There can be no question that the children in the public schools impacted feeling the effects of teachers absent from their institutions of learning. When 80% of the teachers in the schools’ system absented themselves from duty, there is no way that the impact is negligible, or that it is just another day at school. When four out of five teachers are on a strike, then the reality is that instructing and learning in schools come to a virtual standstill, and the children are left hanging.

From the standpoint of teachers, their concerns have been given the royal runaround. In this current strike, all they have asked for is for the government to come to the table to engage in collective bargaining. However, instead of engaging, the government has sought to demonise the Guyana Teachers’ Union, going as far as using state bodies to release information on the union’s financial affairs. Additionally, the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand who ought to be on the side of her teachers have used her social media platform to malign them and even gaslight the situation on the ground.

It is clear to everyone that the government has been heavy-handed, and acts unilaterally. Last year’s meeting convened by President Irfaan Ali and selected teachers is a case in point. Yet on Sunday, he again urged teachers to be patient. Teachers could claim that they have been patient with their issues held in suspension for an extended period. They are issues with considerable teeth: better pay, gratuity enhancements, duty-free concessions, and hinterland benefits and grants. In the present situation, the government cannot cry poverty, as there is considerable oil money flowing in and out of Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund. Teachers believe that what they are asking and fighting for is more than reasonable, given the massive sums that are spent on infrastructure, but so little being centered on people, who give so much day in and day out, and under all kinds of conditions. Our position at this paper should be familiar to all as it has been broadcast countless times: Guyana must renegotiate the horrendous 2016 ExxonMobil oil contract, so that there is more to give to the Guyanese people. This involves our thousands of teachers, plus others in different occupations across this oil rich country.

As far as President of the GTU, Mark Lyte is concerned, the union is prepared to extend the industrial action beyond the two-week time frame until their concerns are addressed. He said too that the GTU is looking into its legal options to defend teachers against some of the measures taken against them by the Ministry of Education. Lyte reminded that industrial action can take various forms, if the ministry and by extension the government fails to address the concerns of teachers. “Even if teachers return to the classroom, we can actually do a lot of things to show our dissatisfaction with the manner in which we have been treated.” While all of this is playing out, the children who should be absorbing their lessons are caught in this crossfire. There must be a meeting of the minds to close this out quickly.

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ExxonMobil, GTU, Mark Lyte, President Irfaan Ali, Priya Manickchand, the union’s financial

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