It can hardly be denied that the public servants, including teachers, deserve to be paid more. It can also be hardly denied that public servants, including teachers, have come a long way since the collapse of the Guyana economy during the 1970s. Long before 1980 Guyana’s economy had been consistently in decline, exacerbated by the rise in oil prices and the decline in the price of sugar on the world market in the 1970s. The decline continued unaddressed until Burnham passed and Hoyte became President in 1985. Hoyte immediately negotiated a recovery programme with the IMF, which Burnham had refused to do on the ground of the harsh conditionalities. Among those accepted were devaluation and a wage and salary freeze. Between 1987 and 1991 the Guyana dollar was devalued from $19.50 to $101.75 for US$1. As a result of these harsh measures, middle level public servants, who owned their own homes and cars, joined the ranks of the impoverished. The poor descended into extreme poverty. While public servants, including teachers, have substantially recovered from that era, the overhang of debilitating IMF conditionalities still remain.