In October last year President Irfaan Ali decided to undermine talks which his government had previously been holding with the Guyana Teachers’ Union and meet the teachers himself to hear their complaints. This took the form of a reception for head teachers and some senior members of staff in the congenial setting of the State House garden.
He was treated to a litany of grievances from those in attendance, which included some on the need to address the hazards in schools and teachers’ dorms. President Ali showed himself responsive to the concerns, telling the complainants that the government had transferred $1.5 billion to the Ministry of Education to fix issues in the classrooms and teachers’ quarters. He then went on to assure them that repairs would soon commence.
‘Soon’ is very much a relative notion in our neck of the woods, while the President clearly has no grasp of how complicated a matter assigning responsibility in the government bureaucracy actually is. The point is illustrated by the case of a fifth-form teacher sent to serve in Paramakatoi Secondary School in Region Eight which we reported on last week after the problem came to light on social media. She is a non-resident and is therefore provided with living quarters.
These, however, are in need of significant repairs, and despite some work being undertaken the premises are still not habitable. According to a letter written by the teacher, Ms Krystal Fisher, to the Regional Education Officer she had been living in the quarters since January 2022 and had had to endure such discomforts as faulty bathroom facilities, no bathroom wash-hand basin or laundry facilities, an inadequately furnished apartment, leaking ceiling, termite infestation and poor plumbing.
On January 30th 2023, she recounted, her then headmaster, Mr Karl Vanier, had written the department on her behalf giving details about the condition of her quarters, and although the letter was carbon copied to Regional Executive Officer Ramotar, nothing was done. She went on to say that she eventually spent her own money on some maintenance work as well as on basic items, following which she asked for indemnification of her expenses. She received the reply that she had not been instructed to furnish the apartment and so would not be reimbursed.
The bathroom ceiling did eventually collapse, courtesy of the termites, and it took around five weeks for the authorities to do anything about it. After her daughter became ill as a consequence of mould in the apartment she had to take special leave and was transferred to St Ignatius Secondary in Region Nine. When she returned early this year on the understanding that the premises had been repaired, she discovered that the living room ceiling had swollen and was on the verge of collapse, the drainage above had not been fixed and she was three light bulbs short and was consequently in darkness. The problem with the ceiling had been caused again by wood-ants.
In what she said would be her final letter to the Department of Education she once more requested that the apartment be fixed by January 20, and wrote that she would not continue to give her services under such deplorable conditions.
When this newspaper contacted Education Minister Priya Manickchand she said that budgets for repair and maintenance were allocated to specific regions, and there was no provision for these at the Ministry of Education. “So we… put out the policy as to what a teachers quarters should have/looks like/accommodate, etc., but it is the region that implements that policy,” she was quoted as replying.
Did the $1.5 billion for repairs for schools and quarters really go to the Ministry as the President seemed to think, or was it distributed to the regions? And if it went to the regions who is it that ensures the money is spent as it should be? If the Ministry is responsible for the “policy” in relation to teachers’ quarters (and other matters), should they not be invested with the responsibility to check that that policy is carried out in the way they envisage?
If no one in the Ministry is responsible for inspecting schools and dorms of one sort or another in the regions to ensure their policies are followed, then that suggests a major bureaucratic hiatus, allowing space for the regional authorities to do whatever they feel like and for the Ministry to evade responsibility for the consequences. Nearly four months on from the head of state’s assurance to the teachers at State House, Region Eight at least is in default at Paramakatoi.
Minister Manickchand referred us to recently appointed Local Government Minister Sonia Parag, who understandably said she was not au fait with the matter and could not comment until she had first seen the post, but subsequent calls to her number went unanswered.
The government has an ambitious plan to dramatically increase the number of secondary schools, especially in the interior. So last year in March we learnt of one to be built at Waramuri for 400 students that will be equipped with Physics, Chemistry and Biology labs, among other facilities, as well as quarters for ten teachers. Similarly, a modern secondary school for 500 students with quarters for 30 teachers was to be built at Kwebanna.
Then in July came news of the construction of a secondary at Tuschen, although since it is in Region Three it will not require accommodation for teachers. The one planned for Hosororo in contrast will, however, being designed with quarters for 20 teachers. And last year’s list does not end there, since there were plans for a secondary school at Kopinang to relieve the overcrowding at Kato. It will cater for 500 students and will be provided with apartments for teachers. Finally there was the secondary in Karasabai, which will also be provided with teachers’ quarters.
No one is opposed to the government’s policy of substantially increasing the availability of secondary education. But building modern schools alone will not do it; schools need teachers. And in the case of secondary schools they need teachers who do not have just a qualification from a training college, but who also have a creditable background, ideally a degree, in the subject they are going to teach. There is a shortage of such teachers, particularly in the STEM field on the coast, so one wonders how the Ministry is going to fill all those vacancies in the interior.
Certainly, if there are teachers who are prepared, like Ms Fisher, to go to the interior, then like her they will not be prepared to stay if they encounter poor living conditions and uncooperative and unhelpful authorities. The government has so far been resistant to addressing the question of how to attract enough competent educators into the schools to have a real impact on educational outcomes. What can be said is that Ms Fisher’s experience if replicated will achieve the opposite of what they want.
Before the President next decides to plunge into a matter which really concerns a union and the relevant government officials, he should ascertain how the system which at least in theory he oversees, actually works. He needs to find out about the dysfunctional relationship between central and regional government and the gaps in responsibility, in this instance, in the education sector. That much, in infinitely more tragic circumstances, he should have gleaned from the Mahdia experience.
