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Teachers take protest to CARICOM
Teachers who assembled on High Street, Georgetown on Thursday.
Kaieteur News – Striking teachers in Guyana on Thursday called on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to intervene on their behalf and meet with the Government of Guyana on the issue of increased salaries and improved working conditions.
The teachers, who are on the 14th day of strike and protests, held placards in front of the CARICOM Secretariat office located at Turkeyen, Georgetown. The meeting is days ahead of the 46th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM being held from February 25 to 28.
President of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) Mark Lyte and GTU’s General Secretary, Corretta McDonald among other senior representatives of the Union were present outside of the CARICOM office.
In a live video recorded outside the CARICOM Secretariat, GTU’s President said “We are asking for the intervention of CARICOM to our concern relating to the treatment of teachers in Guyana. Some of the protestors, teachers have moved to [Turkeyen] to appeal to CARICOM Secretariat to intervene, [for] the Chair of the CARICOM Secretariat to intervene in this matter.”
According to Lyte, the CARICOM Secretariat has an education department that has a responsibility for education.
“This is very, very important, 14 days and the Teachers Union, and the teachers of Guyana have been totally ignored by a government that champions that ‘we care’, or obviously there is something wrong with the ‘we care’ phrase. If this is the way you treat the nation’s educators then we have issues,” Lyte said during the live.
Some of the teachers and GTU representatives who assembled in front of the CARICOM Secretariat at Turkeyen.
He continued: “We are asking the CARICOM Secretariat and the Chair of CARICOM, and the representatives of education to speak to this administration on the way they are treating teachers. The government has not engaged us for the last 14 days and the reality is that there needs to be a livable salary for our teachers at all categories, at all levels.”
GTU’s first Vice President, Mariska Williams in a brief comment said, “We are bleeding, and bleeding out financially, and emotionally, and to learn that our dear President, our President who speaks of ‘One Guyana’ gone to addresses someone else Parliament in St. Lucia and his house is in disarray, it is an embarrassment to the nation and slap to educators of this nation, we are hurt, we are hurt.”
Meanwhile, the GTU General Secretary Corretta McDonald described the treatment of the teachers over the last three weeks, as “brutal” and while reiterating the call for the government to engage the Teachers’ Union.
The teachers’ protest also continued in Georgetown on Thursday, as teachers assembled in close proximity to the Marriott Hotel where the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo was being held.
Protests also continued in New Amsterdam, Linden and on the Essequibo Coast.
On February 5, 2024 teachers from nursery, primary and secondary schools across the country began a nationwide strike and protest demanding better salaries and working conditions through collective bargaining.
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