The General Council of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) yesterday decided to launch a “spontaneous protest” against what they described as attempts by the Ministry of Education (MoE) to sideline the union from decision making during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The issue is decisions being made without the union’s involvement. While there may have been a couple of meetings the Ministry actually did not consult us on several matters before arriving at decisions. In some ways the meetings were simply performative because when we met with the Ministry we raised concerns about the Covid environment in which teachers are working. We never had a meeting thereafter to say well look the Ministry is now going to move ahead with these measure instead they met with parents and teachers and decided when they would have examinations. Even if MoE consults with wider groups the union remains a major stakeholder in education representing about 75% of the teaching population they should’ve come back to the union and say look this is what the parents are saying this, this is what these teachers have said…they did not do that,” GTU President Mark Lyte told Stabroek News last evening.