Teachers owe gratitude to Govt for bringing them out of poverty

Dear Editor,
The teachers of this country owe tremendous gratitude to the PPP/C Government for all the good things they have done for them. But sadly, this is not to be, instead, they have become the most ungrateful lot, all because they chose to be led as political pawns in the hands of their union leaders. It is a very distressing part of our history that the teachers have to face up to.
So, let me refresh our memories, let us go down memory lane, during the authoritarian, backward, rundown reign of the PNC, teachers – public servants on a whole – were forced into a system called “trading”. Now for those who might want to be conveniently amnesiac, trading was a system where public servants, mainly teachers, took flight to neighbouring Caribbean Countries to purchase items for resale at exorbitant prices at home. The exorbitant prices were used to buy a return ticket as well as to maximise profits; all of this was done while our children were neglected, and denied valuable contact time by their teachers.
For those of us who travelled, Guyanese teachers were the eyesore at Caribbean ports, I am talking about teachers shuffling huge “Suriname Shopping bags” around most of the time sleeping at the airports to cut cost. As a Guyanese, it was a sight that I was most ashamed of, and for which Guyanese were called the vile names, and for which we were afforded the most dehumanising treatment from other nationalities right here in the Caribbean. It was the worst of times.
Those who could not afford an airline ticket tore exercise leaves from the free exercise books to sell “crisis cakes,” plantain chips and cook-up rice. By chance Granger made similar remarks when speaking to University graduates, that they can find ways as listed above to gain employment.
Not forgetting the fact that a teacher driving a motor vehicle was a rarity, and even if you’ve seen one, that person had to be a relative or friend of a politician or a “Friend” who would have had to grant special favours to attain that distinction. Interesting indeed! This is the way we were as teachers.
All of the above changed when the PPP/C Government came into power in 1992, from that time to the present, the lives of teachers have dramatically changed for the better. For starters, “trading” came to an abrupt end, as teachers spent quality time now with their students. Financially their pay cheques moved upwards continuously while other benefits such as health, housing, the ability to get a loan at the bank and vehicular ownership saw upgrades.
So, it is with great concern that we view the strike action called by the GTU, bearing in mind they are walking away from a Government that has done so much for teachers; therefore ,this stops nothing short of “biting the hands that fed you.” I want you to hear me and hear me well; this is a teacher’s union that never held a strike during those horrible, slavish years of the PNC, they took their hardships in silence, never to utter a dissenting voice. There were no strikes then, although there were numerous militating factors that lent themselves for strikes.
During the Granger years, the same silent tones existed, they never called out the teachers in a strike, which tells us that the four weeks’ long strike was a politically-orchestrated plan by those in the executive of the union. Precisely so, because that union could have so callously walk away from the collective bargaining table thinking they could strong arm the Government into submitting to their inordinate demands.
In closing, I shall again call on the union to return to the bargaining table and let good sense prevail; there is no other way.

Respectfully,
Neil Adams