The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) on Friday renew its call for an engagement with President Irfaan Ali on a range of issues, including the mandatory vaccination policy for teachers and outstanding financial matters.
At a press conference on Friday, GTU President Mark Lyte disclosed that the union dispatched a letter to Ali on September 22, 2021 requesting a meeting to discuss the matters that need to be addressed.
Prior to this, Lyte said, another letter was sent to the President in July, 2021 asking him to appoint the Commissioners to the Teaching Service Commission.
As of Friday, Lyte said the GTU received neither a response nor an acknowledgement of receipt of either letter.
“President Ali continues to ignore correspondences sent to him by the union. We have written him on the need for a Teaching Service Commission to be appointed and outstanding financial matters,” Lyte told the press conference.
“The issue of mandatory vaccination remains a concern to us. There seems to be no clear pathway as to how teachers with underlying and other issues surrounding their hesitancy will be treated. Teachers continue to be locked out of their schools as we speak,” he added.
Lyte further noted that there has been no effort by the government to engage GTU on negotiations for the years 2019 to 2021.
“Outstanding financial matters such as 2% difference for 2017, adjustment to the 2016 circular, [and] debunching remain outstanding,” he said.
By the end of Friday, Lyte said the GTU intended to submit another copy of their proposal in the event that the previous ones were misplaced.
In recent months the General Council of the GTU staged a number of protests against what they described as attempts by the Ministry of Education (MoE) to sideline the union from decision making during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand had previously told this newspaper that she met with the union on several occasions beginning on August 11,2020.
“That was six days after I was sworn in and five days after I had taken office [because] that was how important I believe the [GTU] as a stakeholder group is. From then to now, we have met six times and on every occasion, we have had what I thought and what the union said were productive meetings…the last few scheduled meetings have been postponed at the behest of the union,” the Minister shared while claiming that the issues raised during the protest warranted letters of complaint rather than protest action.
During last month, GTU also staged a series of protest to particularly highlight the mandatory vaccination policy for teachers. The union later took a decision to suspend the protests.
In a statement, Lyte had said the GTU will be taking a break from protesting the government’s COVID-19 vaccine measures.
The break, Lyte had said, would allow the GTU to evaluate its approach and strategies for a an impactful outcome of its effort.
