Teachers around the country took to the streets yesterday to protest government’s failure to honour joint proposals for wages and other benefits and faced with the possibility that the new school year will begin with a strike, the Ministry of Education announced contingency plans, including the deployment of trainees.
Hundreds of teachers participated in planned protests and Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) President Mark Lyte said based on feedback the first day of the pre-term strike went better than expected, but the union will convene a General Council meeting today to address the concerns of some members.
With the new school year slated to commence on September 3, the Education Ministry said Chief Education Officer Marcel Hutson told a meeting of parents and education officers in regions Five and Six that if teachers stay away from school next Monday, “the service of some 300 teachers from the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) will be utilized. In addition to that, there are monitors across the regions who will ‘step-up to the plate’ to assist in the interim.”
