Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton yesterday restated the APNU+AFC’s backing for striking teachers in their quest for higher pay and he lashed out at the government for being “uncaring” in the backdrop of this year’s trillion-dollar budget.
In a Facebook address, he expressed deep concern for the welfare of teachers and children.
“The government may be thinking that they don’t want to show weakness and must hold out against all comers but let me be clear – this is not a time for one-upmanship… Our teachers are suffering, our children are suffering, the vendors who work around the schools are suffering, the transportation workers who transport our students and teachers are suffering, every parent who has a child is suffering, all our people are suffering because this government considers itself above the people and refuses to understand that they are there to serve rather than to dictate and we condemn this intransigence by the government in the harshest terms possible”, he said.
Norton laced into Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.
“Unlike Jagdeo when he was in opposition, we consider this issue too important to be dragged into a partisan political squabble, and instead choose to allow the teachers to have their say in the hope that good sense would have prevailed and that the government would at least have engaged with the GTU in an effort to bring this matter to some level of resolution.”
He added: “It is a matter of public record that during our tenure in government, when faced with a similar situation, the APNU+AFC government acceded to the demands of the teachers. This was not weakness or merely a political maneuver, but a recognition of the invaluable contribution of our educators to the development of our society. We understood then, as we do now, that investing in education is investing in our nation’s present and future.”
The Opposition Leader urged the nation to come together for change.
“The teachers and all public servants deserve better, our children deserve better, and our nation deserves better. Together, let us work towards a brighter future, where the promise of Guyana is fulfilled for all its citizens. It is now patently obvious that if we want to see change, we have to come together and change this government. Together we stand, divided we fall”, he said.
On the sixteenth day of the teachers’ picketing exercise, the government continued to ignore the demands of teachers across the nation. Speaking in front of the Ministry of Education (MoE) on Brickdam, General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, Coretta McDonald, lamented that children are now at risk due to the negligence of the Ministry of Education (MoE). “Any fault with regards to our children not being able to matriculate at the exams will be squarely laid at the feet of the Government of Guyana. I want to say to parents now, your child’s education is important you have prepared your child all through from grades One to Six to write the Grade Six [NGSA] examination and if they can’t write it and they have lost almost one term then you have to blame the Minister of Education.”
She echoed similar sentiments for those students preparing to write CSEC exams since SBAs have to be submitted, scores recorded, and submitted to the examining body.
McDonald pointed out that the government has invested millions into the CARICOM summit, noting that while they could find US$2 million to give to the Caribbean climate adaptation fund, teachers were being neglected. “We are aware that this government could find monies to pay the teachers,” she stated, as she recalled the Vice President saying that if they are to increase the salaries of teachers the other public servants will call for increases in salaries as well.
“This government… the President, let me start from him. He is very disrespectful to the teachers who taught him,” adding, “in addition to that, all the
dinners and all the breakfasts and all the transportation and so it costs, and if you can find those monies to host CARICOM summit when your teachers are on the streets then it clearly shows that teachers aren’t valued in this government.”
She warned that if the strike continued without a response from the government, it would signal the beginning of an exodus of teachers leaving Guyana in search of better opportunities. “We have already seen numerous amounts of forms being distributed amongst teachers’ groups. These are forms encouraging teachers to travel to the UK, Canada, Jamaica, and the USA.”
Elected
McDonald seized the opportunity to remind the government that she was not appointed, but elected by thousands of teachers as the General Secretary of the GTU. She said that Jagdeo seemed to take issue with her position as an opposition member of parliament.
“They are using that as a form of union busting, but our teachers have read them very clear and our teachers have decided that Coretta McDonald is a teacher just like any other, she is union member just like her counterpart over at GAWU, Seepaul Narine.”
The General Secretary accused the government of trying to create a rift between the teachers and GAWU, but they will not fall for such tactics .
Meanwhile, GTU President, Mark Lyte, took to the union’s Facebook page where he conducts regular livestreams, to inform viewers of the current situation facing the union and teachers. He disclosed that Education International [a global union federation of teachers’ trade unions] has proposed a sit-down with MoE and the union, but to date the ministry has refused. He expressed the hope that international bodies such as UNICEF takes note of the learning loss the government is allowing to take place.
“All the union has been saying is let’s talk” which Lyte noted has been met so far with dead silence from the MoE, underscoring their resistance to come to the table to have collective bargaining. “They are not concerned about the plight of teachers, all we are seeing is business as usual with energy conference, business conference, CARICOM Heads of Government conference…launching of this, launching of that, signing of this, signing of that, unbothered that the nation’s children are affected.”
