President Irfaan Ali is not a man to be inconvenienced by legal niceties. So there he was on Monday, in defiance of the Constitution, the Trades Union Recognition Act and a number of International Labour Organisation conventions, meeting the teachers over the head of their union. The purpose of the gathering was to discuss all matters which concern teachers, not excluding salaries and allowances, even though that is a subject in which the government has been engaged in negotiations with the union.
It is true that teachers’ wages and salaries come under the purview of the Office of the President, but the head of state proffered no explanation as to why, when the matter had been under discussion with the Guyana Teachers’ Union, he should now find it necessary to ask the teachers what they thought. That specific question aside, it was not just that the GTU was not invited to the soirée on the lawns of State House, but that in the process the Minister of Education, although present, was to all intents and purposes sidelined, since it was the President himself who seems to have addressed most of the questions, no matter how technical.
The head of state had indicated a few weeks ago that he intended to meet the teachers to find out what they wanted, so there was a query at the back of not a few minds, including Stabroek News, as to how this was to be accomplished, given the numbers involved. As it was he arranged to hold the convocation in the congenial environment of his official residence, and restricted the totals by limiting the invitees to senior and head teachers. The dignity of the setting, he no doubt hoped, would obviate the likelihood of a confrontational atmosphere, and if that is indeed what he thought, then his assumption appears to have been correct.
He set the tone which he hoped would no doubt continue with the announcement of housing loans for teachers in the sum of $15 million at an interest rate of 3.75%. According to the DPI there would be a session within two weeks’ time when banks would be invited to approve loans on the spot for teachers who had already been allocated a piece of land. It might be remarked that this is not the first time there has been a project under a PPP/C government intended to help teachers with housing, although the precise fate of the last one, many years ago, has since slid into the mists of oblivion.
As for the less auspicious aspects of the State House parley, the unmethodical approach soon showed its limitations. Since there could be no control over the kind of questions asked, these veered from heat in the classrooms to allowances, to overcrowding, to the unavailability of or unstable WiFi, to the quality of housing for teachers sent to the interior, and so on. That the President had little patience for long litanies of complaints was illustrated when one lady asked for remuneration which would allow hinterland teachers to acquire a vehicle for the rough terrain. She appeared to have her queries recorded on her phone and when she was about to move on to her next point the President intervened to say this was not the “United Nations”.
While his abruptness probably earned him no brownie points with the teachers, it has to be acknowledged that in his situation he could not listen to a long catalogue of problems from any number of guests, time would not allow it. The whole idea was for as many people as possible to say something, so it would appear that the President was listening to everyone and would deal with every complaint expressed. But given the format he could not hear everything, and was in no position to discuss the details and background to every situation. In any case, it was only the senior educators he had in front of him.
The whole point about dealing with a union is that there will be (or should be) no skipping around from one unrelated topic to the next; matters will be classified so that related subjects will come up for discussion together, but at the same time distinctions can be made between categories which appear to fall within the same bracket but which have to be treated separately.
An illustration of this is the matter of allowances for teachers, which vary considerably between the ones which apply to those who work in the interior as opposed to those on the coast. President Ali listened carefully when more than one teacher told him that an increase in allowances took precedence over an increase in salaries. Whether this is the feeling of most teachers cannot be said, but in any case one would normally think that it is the union which is in the best position to understand the ramifications of this, and whether it is the best thing for all classes of teacher. While the head of state committed to initiating a comprehensive review of remuneration for teachers, there was no indication from him that his Office would now negotiate the matter with the GTU, leaving the union with the suspicion that a decision would be imposed.
But the head of state also involved himself in technical matters, as admittedly he has done before. In the case of one West Demerara teacher who praised his school for its 96% pass rate in Mathematics in addition to high pass rates in other subjects at CSEC, the President said the Ministry would take teachers with a 96% or more pass rate in their subjects to a special training session where they will compile their methodologies and share these with schools across the nation. Perhaps Minister Manickchand could impress on her boss the fact that high pass rates are the result of teachers who have a genuine grasp of their subject and are conscientious. It doesn’t matter what the methodologies are, if knowledge and hard work on the part of the teachers are absent, the results will be poor. Quality teaching is what is needed to raise standards across the board, and solving that deficit is a more complex problem than the President seems to understand.
So many of those present at the gathering complained about heat in the classrooms especially in newly built schools, one wonders what the specifications for some of these buildings are. While that potentially does come within the President’s general purview and he told the teachers the government had transferred $1.5 billion to the Ministry of Education to fix classroom issues as well as those affecting teachers’ quarters, he had no immediate solutions for heat related matters. However, he did say he would work with the Ministry to explore possible solutions. He should go beyond that to see the relevant authorities ensure the specs for contracts require buildings which are conducive to learning.
All of that, however, is quite beside the point as far as dealing with the GTU as the law requires is concerned. President Ali is in danger of exposing himself to the accusation that One Guyana means a limited oneness which excludes not just the opposition party, but also unions which are perceived as having opposition connections. He is in addition insulting the teachers who pay dues to have the union represent them. It is not for him to say who he will talk to and who he won’t (he has no problems with GAWU, for instance), once the officials of the GTU have been democratically elected, and isn’t democracy what the PPP/C insists it is all about? It is time for his representatives to go back to the table to do the hard negotiating.
As for the GTU, it may have created the space which has allowed President Ali and the government to move in. If it wants to represent the teachers to the best of its ability, it should cease being reactive, and be much more proactive in dealing with the issues which affect educators. It should not be from President Ali that we hear about unsuitable buildings and classroom heat to give one example; the union should have gone public with that and other issues a long time ago. It is not just the government which needs to be more professional; unions need to be professional too.
