Ash Wednesday is the start of the Lenten season on the Christian calendar. For Christians, Lent is a time when people forego certain pleasures. Some forego cigarettes; some choice foods and some even forego pleasures of the flesh. This is the season when Christians seek to purify their minds and bodies. It comes at the time when the teachers are striking for a living wage and for better conditions. This strike is in its second week despite threats from the government. The teachers have been threatened with loss in pay. There was also the threat of criminal action against them. None of these threats have seemed to have an effect on the striking teachers.
The government, through President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, claims that the government has done a lot for teachers. Following a recorded address, President Ali asked the teachers what more do they want. He claimed that he had met with the nurses and teachers, a claim that is being disputed by the Guyana Teachers Union. He actually met with a select group of teachers. Each had individual issues. He did not meet with the legitimate representatives of the teachers.
If one goes to a home and holds a discussion with the children, can one safely claim that one had met with the family? The people met cannot make decisions for the parents. It is the same with those teachers who met with President Ali. They, by no stretch of imagination, could have made decisions for the majority of teachers. As I mentioned during a previous notebook, a headmistress for a senior city school actually asked the President to approach Digicel so that the telephone company could give $1,000 in credit. Such was the selfish nature of those who met with President Ali.
The reality is that when one listens to President Ali’s broadcast one is left to wonder whether the government has actually given anything to the teachers. Everything is futuristic. This is to happen; this will happen; this is planned. President Ali said in his broadcast that the government’s plan is to make the teachers’ pay comparable to those in the region. Indeed, with the oil wealth, Guyana’s teachers earn one-third of what their counterparts in the Caribbean earn.
When will the president’s plan for the improved pay come to fruition. The teachers are hungry now. This is reminiscent of the many poor religious people who struggle and starve on earth with the expectation that they will get better when they die and go to heaven.
There is the story of the suicide bomber who was promised seven virgins when he goes to meet Allah after the bombing. This bomber, with good sense simple told his director that he preferred his virgins now. The teachers want their improved pay and conditions now. President Ali justified the non-payment of the salary increase at this time to the fact that teachers can pursue university degrees while still serving in their schools.
Pursuing a university degree has a cost. Books must be bought; there are transportation and other costs. The pursuit of the university degree may be a good thing for the teachers, many of whom are already struggling with their children. But until that degree is attained, and it could take four years, then what happens?
The president said that some 3,800 scholarships have been offered to teachers to qualify themselves and so earn a higher salary. These are the GOAL scholarships. But these too have a cost that will make a dent on the salary being earned at this time. The scholarships will or may ensure a future benefit. It is like the baby who is looking to its mother for breast milk. The milk is promised but the child is hungry now.
He spoke of paying the teachers during the COVID outbreak in Guyana. The government also pays them during the school breaks. And Guyana was not the only country to pay people during the COVID pandemic. Yet the teachers are expected to take such things into consideration. Because of those things they should forego their demand for better pay.
Graduate teachers get something more on their salary. However, the percentage of graduate teachers is less than 12 per cent. Paying graduate teachers does not impact on those at the lower scale. On social media there is what purports to be a breakdown of the income of the Education Minister. A casual look contends that her driver gets $360,000 per month. No teacher in a school gets that, not even the head of the senior secondary schools. Students may now wish to become drivers for Ministers. At least they would earn more than their teachers.
The maid purportedly gets $161,000. This is more than a senior mistress and more than 90 per cent of the teachers. There is no need for me to report on what they say the Minister gets. And that is another issue. People who enjoy the good life care little for the man who is struggling. If indeed the Minister is earning $1,070,000 per month and gets $50,000 to pay electricity and $80,000 for a gardener, then one cannot help but be sympathetic toward the teachers. At the lowest level the teacher gets $84,000 per month and must pay his or her own electricity bill.
For all this, the government has announced that the teachers will take home even less because pay will be deducted from the days they are on strike. Consider that the teachers actually prepared the Ministers, the President and the Vice President for the positions they hold and for the salaries they receive. Yet we hear that the strike is politically motivated. It matters not that teachers in the government stronghold have also gone on strike.
Meanwhile, the government has set store by massive infrastructure development. New contracts are awarded to contractors who haven’t finished a previous contract. In some cases, the contracts may remain unfinished at great cost to the treasury. In Georgetown, there is the Cemetery Road project. That has stalled. The contractor has been paid.
The Bamia school construction has also been stalled. This project is more than a year overdue. The North Ruimveldt Multilateral School is still to be completed. That too is behind schedule. And these are only two. One contractor was paid some $7 billion to build a new head office for the Works Ministry. Not a nail has been driven but the money has been collected. That money could have gone to boost the teachers’ salaries.
