It came as no surprise that the talks between the Guyana Teachers Union and the Ministry of Education have collapsed. This was expected since the people negotiating on behalf of the Education Ministry would not make decisions on behalf of the government. In the first instance, the major issue for the teachers was salary. They took strike action because they felt that they were not properly paid for the work they were doing for the people described as the future of the nation.
They had been talking with the government since 2019. Admittedly, the Coalition government was in place. Elections were held the following year and the Coalition government was ousted. When a government is changed that should not be the end of what the previous government started. If someone sues a government and the government leaves office, the successor government remains liable. So it was that the talks with the coalition had to be carried over to the new government.
The union said that for four years it kept talking with Government. It got nowhere. On two occasions the union executive was asked to re-submit proposals that had already been on the table. Nothing came of those submissions. The result was the strike that began on February 5, 2024. Justice Sandil Kissoon intervened and ordered negotiations.
The union called off the strike after nearly five weeks to facilitate the negotiations. Many teachers and some members of the public felt that the strike should not have been called off. They said that they did not trust the government to negotiate in good faith. The talks have collapsed. The GTU wants the negotiations to go back to 2019. The Education Ministry said that it will only negotiate from 2024. There was the excuse that funds were not contained in Budget 2024. Of course, this was rubbish.
When Aubrey Armstrong completed the arbitration following the 1999 strike, he concluded that the public servants were to be paid. And despite no budgetary allocation, they were paid. The Education Ministry forgets that the government has been going for supplementary votes with alacrity.
Now that the talks have collapsed one can only wonder at the next step. Will the teachers continue to strike? Some believe so. But then again, will they want to face the sun again for an extended period without any result? They have other options to which they can resort. What I find difficult to understand are the games that the government is playing with the teachers and the public servants.
At a press conference called after the talks collapsed, the president of the Guyana Teachers Union, Mark Lyte, said that the Chief Education Officer, when the talks began, announced that he was the Chief Negotiator.
When talks resumed on Tuesday, the Permanent Secretary turned up, adding to the numbers that were stated at the start of the meeting. She then announced that she was the Chief Negotiator. The minutes had recorded otherwise.
So Saddam Hussain, the Chief Education Officer, apologised for misunderstanding that he was not the Chief Negotiator. He also apologised for agreeing that the negotiations would include salary discussions going back to 2019. The Permanent Secretary then said that the talks would not go back to 2019 but that the government would discuss only matters from 2024. She was tossing the previous minutes and agreements out the window.
Immediately the union accused her of being disrespectful and of attempting to bully the union. That, according to the union, will not work. The children would suffer once more. GTU General Secretary Coretta McDonald said that tomorrow, Thursday, the mock examinations for the Grade Six children are scheduled to begin. And in a couple of days there would be some practical for the CSEC students.
I hate to consider the aftermath if these things fail. Already, less than 10 per cent of the children writing the Grade Six examinations enter secondary schools. The remainder will fall by the wayside. Guyana, over the years, has been seeing the effect of those who are discarded by the system.
There was a daylight robbery at a Chinese grocery on Monday during which a security guard was shot and killed. The perpetrators are from among the ranks of those who failed to make the top ten percent at the Grade Six. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.
Just recently, President Irfaan Ali told the nation that come 2027 teachers and public servants would be paid handsomely. That is three years away. The cost of living is what it is today. Imagine what it would be in three years. At the same time, imagine asking people to work for the same pay to satisfy their needs in a country where things will definitely become more expensive.
Perhaps, the government has a vision for a brighter Guyana but Brazil’s President Lula who was here just a few days ago, recognised the need to develop people even as a country pursues its dreams. Lula, like other world leaders, know that the development of people will result in the development of the country. Guyana’s leaders are already complaining about a shortage of human resource. The human resource has been dwindling for quite some time. Perhaps, the solution rests in importing skills. But the fallout would be horrific.
No one can picture people sitting idly by while foreigners earn. To compound the situation, the police are already complaining about declining ranks. People are not joining the Guyana Police Force. It is the same with the Guyana Fire Service. The situation could be the same with the Guyana Defence Force. The pursuit of infrastructural development has resulted in numerous projects being incomplete. Some have not started. There may be a need to scale back on some of these projects and concentrate on people. Pay them.
