Long before the arrival of COVID-19, teachers within the public service have had to deal with disrespect for their profession. Despite the amount of time and effort dedicated towards developing the minds of the nation’s children, teachers have for decades remained overworked and underpaid.
With schools having largely moved online for more than a year now, many within the teaching profession had to quickly find new ways within which to deliver schoolwork and engage their students online. Neither teachers nor students were prepared for this shift. The lack of readiness for e-teaching and e-learning also speaks towards governments’ stagnant approach towards the education sector over the years. Serious thought has never been given towards revolutionizing our classrooms. Chalk and blackboard is still the standard way they believe to reach students and it is likely that chalk and blackboard will remain that standard whenever children do make it back into the halls of schools.
Many schools that have implemented online learning are doing so from a position centred on normality. They simply do not know how to provide educational content in an online environment. So largely, the responsibility to figure out how to amend lesson plans and content for online learning rests on the increasingly burdened shoulders of teachers.
In a letter printed yesterday in this newspaper, an unnamed teacher commented on the difficulties she faces as a working mother, wife and caretaker. Her letter detailed circumstances that are very familiar to many women who have now been forced to increase their unpaid caring responsibilities in the face of the pandemic. Despite the difference in profession and circumstances, I related to the teacher’s added difficulties in trying to manage work, home and childcare during this period. Given the demands of online classes, I last year made the decision to remove my child from school for the year. As a single parent, I had to look not only at the disadvantages of keeping her back one-year, but also at the way the classes were being delivered, my child’s mental and emotional state and my rapidly building work requirements. I remain convinced that was the best decision for both of us but I am aware of the fact that for many children who are now out of school, the likelihood that they do not return is very high and this is something that the government needs to respond to.
Women are burdened with the majority of unpaid and underpaid caring work and this of course impacts children. Not surprisingly, these responsibilities are amongst the largest contributors to gender inequality and persistent poverty amongst women. Daily, we are expected to perform the labour of cooking, cleaning, laundry, child and eldercare just to name a few. These are tasks that are essential to the maintenance of our homes and economies, particularly in developing countries such as ours. Given that the burden unfairly continues to fall on women to care for others, what they are essentially doing is providing free/cheap labour while the State continues to benefit from this and invisibilizes women’s contributions. It is important to note that women predominantly staff the teaching service and this is a contributor towards the way the profession continues to be treated. You see, women are expected to not only rear and care for children, but are also seen as the ones tasked with teaching them about the ways of life and instilling values.
The teaching service is thus seen as merely another component of women’s responsibility to community and the State. This becomes even clearer when we examine women’s entrance into the workforce where the main jobs women could get before were as teachers, secretaries and seamstresses. These professions were largely underpaid due to constant cuts to teaching salaries after men began exiting the profession en masse. Today that translates into a pitiful public service salary and yet, they are largely expected to be grateful for employment despite not receiving wages that can provide comfortable living.
The plight of teachers and their increasing rate of unpaid labour largely continue to be ignored because of the simple and unfortunate reality that it is primarily considered the work of women. This work is seen as something they must do without much compensation or thanks because it is a “duty” that comes along with a profession that is largely gendered. Their rate of pay has not substantially changed for decades, despite constant increases in cost of living and teaching expenses. It truly is no wonder that Guyana continues to boast one of the highest brain drain rates in the region.
