Govt. forced to scrap end of term exams as teachers’ strike bites

May 16, 2024 News

Teachers, parents and children across Guyana have been protesting for better wages

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Education on Wednesday informed schools across Guyana to scrap end of term examinations due to the crippling effects of the ongoing teachers’ strike for better wages.

Instead, the ministry said that the schools should use continuous assessment to promote students to the next level of their education. The announcement comes even after conciliation talks remain deadlocked with no agreement between the Guyana Teacher’s Union and the Ministry of Education on proposals made by both sides to end the industrial action.

In a circular dispatched to regional educations officers, Chief Education Officer, Saddam Hussain said” given the number of weeks of instructions already lost and the limited number of weeks remaining in the school year, the Ministry of Education has made the following decisions regarding end of year annual examinations and other matters for 2024.”

The first decision listed is that no public primary or secondary school is to conduct annual examinations in the August term of 2024. Additionally, Hussain said, all schools are to conduct continuous assessment in the current August term. Thirdly, he said the end of year score for Grade 9 should not be the main criterion for streaming students into Grade 10, noting that consideration must be given to the student’s choice of stream. Hussain said too that the National Grade Five Assessment will be administered as usual.

No resumption

On Wednesday this newspaper reported the GTU assuring that it will remain on strike if the ministry refuses to place a tangible solution on the table. Nationwide strike resumed on Monday following the inability of the two sides to come to an amicable solution. However, both sides met to discuss the terms of resumption but have since been unable to agree. The GTU has been calling on the government to hike teachers’ salaries and have since put a multi-year agreement 2019-2023 to the government for consideration. The government has since refused to accept the proposal, noting that it is only prepared to engage the Union on salary matters from 2024 onwards. This resulted in the Union utilising industrial action. The two sides have not been involved in Collective Bargaining, an element integral to the resolution of the stalemate.

On Tuesday night, General Secretary of the GTU, Coretta McDonald told Kaieteur News that the Union requested that several phrases be added to the Terms of Resumption, the two sides were discussing but the ministry did not agree to them. “We deliberated on the fact that we cannot trust any word that comes out of the officials of the Ministry of Education, because once bitten, twice shy,” McDonald said. She continued, “So in order for us to resume duty fully and call the strike off, to have a full resumption, it means that we would need to have something that is tangible for us to hold on to. Thus far, the ministry is not prepared to release anything that is tangible…” It should be noted that the process of Conciliation has not yet started. The General Secretary underscored that the Union has been very lenient with the government and the ministry. She noted too that the GTU is eager to have the issue resolved.

“But we are not going to go down that same road that we went down a few months ago, unless we have something tangible coming from the Ministry of Education with regard to the resumption of duties, there will be no resumption of duties,” McDonald stated.

She shared too that on Monday the talks with the Education Ministry will continue. On February 5th, teachers from across the country took to the streets to protest for better wages and salaries. This action went on for almost a month and resulted in a court battle between the Union and the government. In response to the GTU’s industrial action, government had announced that teachers who participated in the strike action – salaries will be deducted. However, GTU challenged the government’s decision in court and on April 19, 2024, High Court Judge Sandil Kissoon ruled in favour of the teachers, affirming the legality of the strike and prohibiting the government from implementing salary deductions.

bites, exams, Ministry of Education, strike, teachers

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