“I don’t think people understand the job of a teacher. You see many persons talking about the holidays we get and we work from nine to three and five days a week. But it is not as easy as they assume.
“We are parents, counsellors, nurses and even doctors sometimes. Children come to school with myriad problems and we have to try and solve because of the number of hours they are with us. Now we are asking for a living wage and all of sudden we are the bad ones.”
The words of a striking teacher on the picket line last week. It has now been ten (school days) since the ‘slippers on the ground’ strike called by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) began. The teachers are weary but have vowed not to give up. Some have gone back to the classroom out of fear since the government has indicated they would not pay them for the days they are striking. I was on the strike line in Georgetown for a few hours and as I looked at the faces of mostly female teachers it was evident that they did not want to be the sun chanting. But I also saw people who were resolute and determined to make their voices heard. I saw friends and family alike and I felt the pain.
I spoke to a few teachers but the words of this particular sister stuck with me.
“I understand why some of my colleagues have gone back to the classrooms. Just the thought that your meagre salary would be cut is enough for you to go back to the classroom. But to what end? You are already not making it, might as well we hold out and get something more on our salaries to make us comfortable,” this educator said.
“I have been teaching for almost 30 years and now I am a headmistress for a Grade C school but yet I am still struggling financially. Sometimes when I think of my retirement, I am scared because I ask myself after teaching for more than half of my life, what am I retiring to?”
But it is not just for her that she is on the streets.
“But you know even as I struggle I feel it more for some of my teachers, some of them carrying home $80,000 eighty when the month come. How are they to survive? I have teachers coming to school sometimes hungry. And let me tell you, sometimes I just cook a pot at school so everyone has something to eat.
“I would not want that to really go out because they could find that I am breaking some rule. But should a rule prevent me from giving a little food? If my teachers are stressed and hungry how can they teach the children?” she questioned, not expecting an answer.
She has been on the road from the first day of the strike and it is taking a toll on her.
“I am tired. I go back to school in the afternoons and when I get home I am drained. But I am continuing. It is time we as teachers are paid a living wage” she said.
“And of course it is not just the teachers. As much as we hardly have, there are children who need and we have to find ways and means to help them. And it is unfortunate we get the children that need the most, not just financially but some of them are not in a good place emotionally or psychologically. And so even though my teachers themselves are not in a good place they have to find the space to deal with those children.
“I don’t think society understands how broken it is. The problems I see among our children are frightening to say the least. And many times, it is at these schools you see less parental involvement. The children are sometimes left to fend for themselves and it us, the teachers, who are left to fill the gap.
“The working environment is another thing. Many times the school is not a welcoming place, we try but teachers can’t teach and be maintenance officers as well. Try to think about your children at home and how difficult it is at times to keep your home orderly and ensure that things are not destroyed.
“Well, we have so many children and it is difficult for us to manage them at times. Maintenance of the school building and environs is lacking and we are left sometimes to work in very unsavoury conditions. If you see washrooms in some of the schools. And you ask yourself how come you studied for years and then to work in such an environment?
“But right now we are asking for a living wage. I want the Education Minister and the Government to know that this is not about politics. This is just about a living wage. I believe, and hundreds of my colleagues believe the same, we are at a point in our economy where our educators can be paid better. This is not about waiting, this about needing what we need now.
“We love our children. We go above and beyond for them. So don’t try to make us out as villains. We just can’t take it anymore. They are talking about everything else except the issue about salary increases for us. We are calling on the government to meet with the union not to talk about other things but to talk about wages.
“Why is that so difficult?” she questioned.
“To tell you that I am not a little afraid I would be lying. I need my full salary at the end of the month. I have bills to pay so if it is in March I would not be receiving my full salary then I am not sure how I would survive.
“Even so, I am holding,” she said determinedly.
Another teacher told me that many months it is hard for her to find bus fare to get to school.
“I have to stand on the road, rain or shine, waiting for a bus. But then there are times when I don’t even have the money to pay,” she told me sadly.
“I am committed to this job, I am committed to my children but come on I am not human too? Me and my children must not have to struggle to find meals sometimes, not when their mother worked hard on educating herself to find what people say is a good job. I did all of that. I don’t have 40 children and yet I am struggling to support them on my salary,” she added.
“It is time. It is time, Mr President. Look at us. Look at our faces, we are your people, we are your teachers, just talk to the union about our salaries and pay us,” she pleaded.
Last week I made a pitch to Education Minister Priya Manickchand and this week I would say the same. Posting on Facebook is not going to solve this problem. As a woman and human I am pleading with the minister to put politics aside and make a way for the union and the government to have a conversation about teachers’ wages. Yes, we know as you said so many things the union asked for you have implemented and they are still talking about them. But talk to them about salary increases, propose something. Do something, forget Coretta Mc Donald for a moment and just see the faces of your teachers. Be kind, Minister, be kind.
