Massive turn out as teachers’ strike widens

Feb 17, 2024 News

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…protest to continue until pay issues are addressed

Kaieteur News- Teachers line both sides of the streets on Friday as they continued to register this public demonstration in front of the Ministry of Education’s Brickdam office calling on the Government to relent to their demands for higher salaries via the collective bargaining process.

This was the biggest turn out since the nationwide teachers and public demonstration exercise commenced two weeks ago.

The Guyana Teachers Union (GTU)-led protest has seen thousands of teachers and their supporters take to the streets, braving the humid weather and standing for hours in front their respective regional education offices to publicly register their concerns.

Friday marked day 10 of the protest and it was characterized by a similar display by the disgruntled teachers.  The GTU has since vowed that industrial action will continue until their concerns are addressed. While the demonstration continued in the other regions, several of the teachers joined their counterparts in front the office of the Ministry of Education, Brickdam Georgetown.

The teachers stood on opposite sides of the road holding their placards and umbrellas, chanting phrases in keeping with their desire for livable pay package. “Slippers on the ground and we aint backing down!!!” the teachers chanted loudly over the sounds of drum beats and horns indicating their resolve to continue to industrial action until they achieve their desired results. Many shared the view that the Government has chosen ‘to beat around the bush’ on the issue of salary negotiations rather than address it head on.

General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers Union, Coretta McDonald commented on the fact the Government has been nitpicking at everything else rather than address the salary concerns of the teaching population.

Responding to recent claims by Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo that despite the government engaging with the GTU continuously, they chose to walk away and instead called strike action, McDonald clarified that the talks are in relation to policy issues and not in relation to finances.

She explained that “The Union and The Ministry of Education continue to speak on level of the professional development of teachers which deals with the policy aspect matters like teachers attending school late how can we curb that should we look at moving teachers to schools closest to their homes; we talk about reduction of class sizes; we look at reducing the number of teaching period, reducing the number of notes of lessons…”

McDonald continued that “The Ministry of Education’s professional arm which is headed by the Chief Education Officer, has nothing to do with finances, we have never seen able to meet with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, In fact the Ministry of Education said to us that all matters as it relates to finances will be dealt with by the Office of the President.”

Rather than skirt around the issue, the GTU General Secretary said that Jagdeo should appeal to his Government to have dialogue with the Union towards resolving the issue.

“We would expect that a man like Bharrat Jagdeo rather than have the teachers out here, he would be able to say we need to talk to the teachers   just like he was saying in 2018 but now its 2024 his speech is different…” she said. McDonald’s comments come one day after Jagdeo told a press conference that the Ministry of Education is responsible for all negotiations with the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU).

Jagdeo had contradicted Education Minister, Priya Manickchand who had said that salary negotiations for teachers are being led by the Office of the President and not her ministry.

Jagdeo said that those talks are being done by the Education Ministry.  At his weekly news conference held on Thursday, he was asked by this publication “at what stage of this industrial action will the government relent and meet with the union?” Jagdeo said that, “They had meetings. I just demonstrated to you that they had meetings that were ongoing. They met on the 31st of January they had a meeting scheduled for the 21st of February, based on an understanding that they and the Ministry of Education will meet continuously every third Wednesday of every month.”

The VP explained that there were engagements and the union chose to walk away from that, calling for a strike even though the Ministry would have resolved around 30 of the 40 plus issues, they had highlighted in their letter.

However, the GTU has been adamant about the issue of salaries being addressed calling on Government to show a willingness to engage in collective bargaining,

GTU’s President, Dr Mark Lyte made yet another appeal to the Government during a Friday morning live stream saying “If we write you, it is your obligation and duty to write us in return. We are not going to accept a verbal invitation to any meeting. We would like you to invite us formally to a meaningful meeting where we can agree to the terms of resumption,” he said.  The GTU president nevertheless vowed that “this strike will go on as long as government refuses to engage the union.”

 

 

 

 

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• GTU, Mabaruma, Priya Manickchand, protest

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