GTU opposing COVID-19 vaccines for teachers

Dear Editor,
There is the catastrophic damage caused by more than seventeen (17) months of remote schooling. Not only did our school children fall dramatically behind in the recent school year, the damage was substantially greater for low-income and minority school children, whose families tended to lack the resources to navigate the perils of turning their home into a virtual classroom.

Meanwhile the Guyana Teachers Union is opposing a vaccine mandate while citing… contributed very little to suppressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cherry on top of this sundae of public dysfunction is the fact that the Guyana Teachers’ Union has refused to support a vaccine requirement for teachers.

“Vaccinations must be negotiated between employers and workers, not coerced”, they say.

My question to the Union representatives and teachers is: “So, the COVID-19 pandemic supposedly presents a medical threat so dire that it could potentially limit schooling for the third year in a row? But is it not serious enough to justify a vaccine requirement for teachers? This bizarre combination of positions is the product not only of the narrow self-interest that union leaders can advocate on behalf of their members, but also an ideological hothouse they have fostered from the APNU/AFC leaders, and a cadre of activists in and around the unions inhabit an alternate reality nearly as paranoid as the one constructed by the pandemic deniers.

Here, in Guyana, we have enough evidence of significant learning loss and drop-outs at every level, with more than 600 drop-outs recorded at the primary level alone, and the Minister of Education and her team are working assiduously to arrest this situation and reverse this reality for our children, who have already fallen victim to these phenomena.

The PPP/C want all of our children engaged and in school, and are working towards achieving this safely. There is no mandatory requirement for children to be vaccinated to return to classrooms. Teachers have been accorded the status of a most valuable resource, and teachers were paid their full salaries and benefits throughout the 17 months there was no school.

There were no salary cuts or layoffs, as in so many other countries. Vaccination of teachers is not mandatory, and there are clear guidelines issued for those who do not want to be inoculated. All of this to keep teachers, their families, and our children safe.

For the educators across this country, I feel strongly that if you’re eligible to get vaccinated, get vaccinated. Do your part to make sure that we’re all safe, and that we can reopen schools without interruption. Again, our students have suffered enough.

What is reassuring is that our Government do know how to keep our children safe. They are doing so by getting as many people around them who are eligible for vaccinations to be vaccinated, and to keep our schools masked right now, until we have more and more people vaccinated, and until we have our young children vaccinated.

Teachers must be considered a priority group due to the “essential nature of their work”, which requires them to be in “daily contact with a large number of people from a large number of households”.

I believe that as COVID-19 cases continue to rise and the Delta variant spreads, a vaccination requirement — with provisions and responsible accommodations negotiated under collective bargaining laws — is vital to the continuation of in-person learning in Guyana.

We must do everything in our power to protect students, educators, public health, and all of our communities. Teachers must take seriously their responsibility to protect our students, early childhood through higher education, our parents and their families, and our communities. The Minister of Education supports required vaccination of all education workers and eligible students in our schools. The Government also support regular COVID-19 testing in lieu of vaccination for those not yet eligible, or those for whom vaccination is not medically advisable.

Educators and the Teachers Union must do everything in their power to ensure that our schools can open safely, and stay open. We continue to be alarmed by the failure of Opposition political leaders to follow our Government’s example, and their refusal to engage with other stakeholders during this critical time.

It is very important that teachers and school workers get vaccinated, as it would give confidence to parents regarding their children’s safety. It is imperative that teachers and school workers get vaccinated, which could prevent the spread of COVID-19 and also provide protection to teachers and school workers.

I don’t see the need for the Guyana Teachers Union opposing the COVID-19 vaccine for teachers. The awful thing is that 17 months of closed schools has brought with it hardly any public-health benefit. Even before widespread vaccinations, evidence suggested that closing schools contributed very little to suppressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sincerely,
David Adams