Officials from the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) have lined up a meeting for next Monday, June 10th. It is a start. A restart to be more accurate. It has been starting, stalemate, and start over again. Something has to give, if this exercise in circular futility is not to continue for a while to come. The objective of both sides must be to dig deeper than they have before and carve out a way towards some form of consensus. Some type, some degree, some commencing, no matter how small on the road to consensus.
It is a tricky one in this country, that word called consensus. Though I had shared some thoughts on this in the Stabroek News about a week or so ago, it may be of some use to repeat the shortened version here. When there is conflict or contradictory positions, then there must be that tireless feeling for a way to get to consensus. It is mandatory, for otherwise leaves where…. There is no choice, unless a perennial checkmate is desired, which I don’t think any of the parties want, irrespective of the clashes and sharp flareups of impatience and frustrations.
Reasoning seeks a way to forge an ascendant hand, amid all the reciprocal finger pointing, the verbal scuffling, and usual headbutting. This impasse has gone on too long, and there must be a little giving here and a little more there, from both sides. The much sought after consensus for both teachers and children to return to the classroom will be founded on, seeded by, and fueled through, compromises that are sensible and indicative of wanting to rise above the predicament that exists
It is utterly pointless, of no value, to note who did wrong and who repeated those wrongs. Though possessing of sharp sting value, and good public relations fodder, at the end of the day, the schools are still silent, and parents wringing heir hands about what to do, what could be in store. Far be it from me not to acknowledge that this is business, with hard numbers contributing to tougher conversations. The atmospherics are not helpful either, with too much bad blood and bad faith swirling, and with enough to share liberally around, with both sides touched up to a greater or lesser degree.
But all of this, and none of this, should inhibit a meeting of once clashing minds so that the numbers can be parsed and stretched and rationalized, until there is that formula that makes everybody pause and recognize that this just could be mutually acceptable. The numbers in their various combinations must be massaged. It is not about saving face. It is about saving the children. Because it is the public school system, it means politics. It is enough to make me want to divert and start mentioning drainage and irrigation, only to appreciate that the politics dog everywhere and everything.
Since the parties in this knockdown dragged out, is at the heart of it, a fight about money, a package of it, it is essential that sober heads prevail. Sober heads should temper expectations and the related conversations and presentations on both sides. Could I venture into this overheated cauldron to state that cooperation is the key to get to the compromises that give hope for consensus? The consensus understanding would be that no side got all that it wished for, but each side walked out of their last conversation with what should be for the next 3-4 years. In other words, something with which they could live, be proud about, in that through trial and error, and anger and much time lost, cooperation brought about the kind of compromises that led to a final consensus, which saves the day.
I could taint this writing with postures involving discrete numbers, and ideas about how a total compensation package ought to be structured, with sweeteners, delayed gratification, and other incentives that swap cash for other comforts. But the preference is to leave that to the participants. Relative to ‘other comforts,’ it could be for the time that represents life after teaching. Or some concession about amenities of life, which reflect the creative thinking and innovative stretch that went into the process of finding solutions, and a rung up from the quicksand that would not let go.
Everybody has had more than their say about who did wrong, who fell apart when straightforwardness had to be the only call. I think, I recommend, that it is time to zero in on doing what is right. What it takes to close this sorry episode in Guyana’s labor history to a place of mutual satisfaction. We focus on the negatives, the surrounding handicaps, and negatives and handicaps are what will litter the post meeting reports to the public. Instead of helping, or soothing the situation, the raw state of things simply gets rawer.
To wrap this up, not the prettiest of parcels I readily admit, when there is good faith energy to move from where stuck to where holds promise, the small percentage points, even fractions, take on great significance. Good faith builds trust. The door is then swung wide to welcome what could be the first elements of consensus that fuel the compromises so direly needed. My hope is that there will be no need to write again (the 10th or 12th time) about the teachers’ strike. For by then, it would have been over, and there are smiles and handshakes around. No matter how strained, regardless of how stiff. Let this be done.
