Teachers across the country resumed strike action today, and the President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Mark Lyte reported this afternoon that more than 60% of the nation’s teachers stayed away from their jobs.
The GTU said its members made a decision to resume strike action over the Government’s continued failure to engage the GTU in collective bargaining for an improved salary package.
The strike, which started in early February, resumed after a two-month hiatus, and some three weeks after the High Court ruled that the Ministry of Education failed to engage the Teachers’ Union in collective bargaining.
In an interview today, the President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union, Dr. Mark Lyte, said the result of the Government’s refusal to sit down with the union to negotiate the proposed multi-year agreement, is the closure of a number of schools, as the strike has restarted.
“From the reports we have gathered, a significant number of teachers remained at home as advised…Sixty percent of our teachers remained at home, and several schools are closed. And as advised, head teachers would have taken their keys to the Department of Education in the various regions. We have reports that several schools have been completely shut and in all the regions, this has happened,” the GTU President said.
When News Source visited a number of schools in around the city today, many of them were found with empty classrooms. A number of other schools saw just a few children turning up for class.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Shannielle Hoosein-Outar, upon being notified by the union of its decision to resume strike action earlier this week, expressed surprise at the decision of the GTU and the teachers to resume strike action. However, Mr. Lyte said the Education Ministry was warned that failure to engage the union on the proposed agreement would result in strike action.
“But we have been saying this for a long time that the strike action is likely to be resumed with the hope that the Ministry and by extension the Government would have taken heed to that and actually reach out to the Union for the talks to resume. We have not seen that until we submitted the letter to the PS about our resumption, we got a response for the first time after the court hearing,” Lyte explained.
The Government has signalled a willingness to engage the Union on a new proposal covering 2024 and beyond, but Lyte said the Union will not shift its position.
“We remain resolute in our position that it has to be 2019-2023, that is the proposal we have submitted, and that is the proposal we are ready to engage them in talks with,” the GTU President said.
He said the Union suspects that the Government is buying time to allow for another imposition of salaries at the end of the year, but the Union is prepared to step up the pressure as it remains resolute in its position.
Teachers are expected to remain at home tomorrow, before hitting the streets next week if there is no early resolution to the issue.
The GTU said it remains hopeful that the Government will come to the negotiation table sooner rather than later, warning that children will be losing critical hours of learning should the Government fail to address the concerns of teachers.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login