By Abigail Headley
After being found in contempt of the court’s order, Chief Educa-tion Officer (CEO) Saddam Hussain yesterday apologised to Justice Sandil Kissoon for a memorandum that he sent out to education officers on Tuesday in which he stated that striking teachers will not be paid, and that the judge’s ruling was temporary.
Hussain was summoned to court yesterday after the judge got wind of the memo and found it to be in contempt of the court’s order.
At the proceedings, Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall SC was present and was questioned as to the reason for his presence there. In response, the AG stated that he was there to represent Hussain. He was however rebuffed by Justice Kissoon who reminded him that someone of his position (that of AG) was not allowed to represent in the matter.
Nandlall in turn said that though signed by the CEO, the memo in question was issued on behalf of the Ministry of Education (MoE) and by extension the government and that he is the designated legal advisor to said government. The judge then reminded the AG that it was he (Nandlall) who, in the past, had objected to then AG Basil Williams making representations outside of his legal standing. Justice Kissoon continued that that matter had gone as far as the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and the ruling was made in favour of Nandlall’s argument. As such, Justice Kissoon reiterated that Nandlall had no legal standing in the matter between the court and the CEO.
Nandlall persisted and explained to the court that he had, on Tuesday, met with executive members of the MoE, Hussain included, and had given them an evaluation of Judge Kissoon’s February 22 ruling. The AG added that in giving the rundown, he had noted to those present that strike days cannot be deducted from teachers’ salaries as long as the substantive court case brought by the Guyana Teachers’ Union against the government is pending.
Nandlall further noted he should have been given the chance to examine the memo before it was sent out by Hussain and for this he took the blame. While acknowledging what was explained by the AG, the judge reminded him that the closure of the matter at hand was still pending a response from Hussain himself.
At this state, Nandlall asked for and was granted permission to confer with the CEO for a few minutes before he addressed the court. After being advised by the AG, Hussain proceeded to explain his actions and apologise to Justice Kissoon.
“It was never my intention of offending Your Honour or the court that Your Honour represents… We have the Ministry of Education and we have no intention of… deducting anybody’s salary until all of this is resolved or if it is not resolved it will not be deducted ever. Having read Your Honour’s document that was sent to me, sir, I realized my folly… I should have also done further consultations with the honourable Attorney General to get a better wording and a syntax properly done… it was never my intention… even to have any say in the matter that is ongoing,” he said.
Further, explaining his perception, he noted that despite being called the CEO he is also a teacher who is tasked with preparing students for the upcoming Grade Six mock examinations and the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), and thus he was just attempting to get the teachers to return to their jobs.
Entire generation
“An entire generation is dependent on me, and I will be held accountable… an entire generation is at my peril and I had to do something to ensure that at least the Grade Six teachers are teaching. It was on that intention that I sent my memo out,” Hussain said while noting that the memo was sent out to the various education officers and not the public.
The contents of the memo were reported on in yesterday’s Stabroek News.
Concerning the portion of the memo instructing education officers to continue taking records of those teachers who are absent, the CEO explained that this is important because, “If ten teachers are absent or two hundred, it is affecting the system and so I have to do everything in my power to try and see teachers go back to the class and teach”.
Hussain then closed his statement by expressing his apology to the court and promised to rescind the document.
In the memo which surfaced in the public domain early Tuesday evening, Hussain said: “To be clear, the orders made by Justice Kissoon are temporary. The Government of Guyana will not pay teachers for the days that they did not work. We are advised that a final order from the court is expected to be made accordingly and consequently the information collected…will be utilized to determine teachers’ salaries”.
The words “temporary” and “final order” were done in bold in the document. During his apology yesterday, the CEO noted that the last paragraph of the memo was “very poorly worded”.
Last week, Justice Kissoon ruled that the status quo be maintained, thus safeguarding the salaries of striking teachers pending the outcome of the ongoing related case. The substantive matter, which involves the government and the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) is scheduled to be heard on March 20.
Hussain’s memorandum came days after Kissoon’s ruling which not only suspended the deduction of teachers’ salaries by the MoE but temporarily halted the ministry’s move to stop taking out union dues on behalf of the GTU. Prior to the matter being taken to court, the education ministry had announced those moves.
Teachers are currently on their fourth week of an industrial action which promises to continue indefinitely until the government agrees to meet their union at the bargaining table to discuss better wages.
