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Aug 19, 2018 Features / Columnists, Hinds' Sight with Dr. David Hinds, News
Last Sunday, I sat through an Education Roundtable discussion organized by the Buxton First of August Movement as part of its Emancipation program. The topic of the discussion was “Restoring Education Excellence to Buxton: What is to be done?”
Vincent Alexander opened the discussion by locating restoration of education excellence within a wider community framework. He placed the burden of education outcomes beyond the classroom to encompass the community. Critically, he tasked teachers with becoming more than employees; he urged them to become custodians of the education of the village.
Alexander’s presentation was followed by almost two hours of testimony by teachers on a panel and from the floor about their experience in the classroom. By the end of the discussion, it was established that a convergence of efforts by parents, teachers, students and the wider community operating within both the formal and informal settings, was critical to restoring the kind of laudable outcomes the village craves. The gathering agreed to pursue a holistic community initiative under the guidance of the Society for African Guyanese Empowerment-Buxton (SAGE-Buxton) with the expressed aim of coming up with creative interventions targeting teachers, students and parents.
As I reflected on the testimonies I heard from teachers that evening and from members of the wider community, I realized that while the burden of lifting the education standards lies with all of us, it was the teachers who would have to play the most defining role. As I listened to their pleas and recommendations, it occurred to me that they, the teachers, feel as if they have been abandoned by everyone—by the parents, by the community and above all, by the government.
As a teacher myself, I share some of their pain—the sense of loneliness. Teachers are expected to create miracles, to clean up the mess of community and of those in authority. I heard from those teachers their frustration at the lack of vision from the top, the authoritarian nature of management and the disrespect they face from parents and from the Ministry of Education. They were glad for the forum to tell their stories of doom, of challenges and of hope. They were passionate—these custodians of the country’s present and future.
They directed their anger and angst and sense of alienation at Vincent and I because they felt we were listening and that we could intervene. The complaints ranged from ancient school-buildings without partitions to large class sizes to unsanitary conditions to lack of teaching aids to unruly children, to rigid rules to lack of administrative help to maladjusted and disinterested teachers to abusive parents to lack of community consciousness by teacher. I rather suspect that if I were to go to most communities, the cries would be the same.
But the elephant in the room in Buxton that evening was the pitiful remuneration that teachers receive. I reflected on what it would be like if the Minister of Education were there to hear those testimonies. But I quickly realized that she was in the midst of negotiations with the teachers’ union over the long overdue pay raises for the teachers. And in any case, our Ministers don’t think that community meetings are part of their job description, except when they are seeking more power.
I have often wondered why all governments, including the Burnham government, which was sympathetic to poor people, have treated teachers so badly when it comes to wages. And I have concluded that it has to do with a lack of appreciation for what education means for poor people. I think they understand the role of education in maintaining and lifting the privileged in our society. But somewhere not very deep in our elite psyche, there is doubt about what education can do for the collective poor and underprivileged. I have always had that lingering suspicion, but the swift ridicule of the poor by the elites in their frenzy over the proposal for cash transfers has confirmed my worst fears—they think poor people are useless.
That is why they can’t see the linkage between better pay for teachers and better education for the poor. Why must teachers beg for a living wage in a country that would be flush with money starting two years from now? If the government does not have the money, then it must rearrange its priorities to find the money. Or as a last resort, borrow the money against the expected oil revenues. If the government can borrow to fix sugar estates to sell them, then surely it can borrow to fix education.
I stand with the teachers and urge them not to back down. And do not allow your government to intimidate you away from the threat to strike for your just demands. Here I invoke Eusi Kwayana’s famous refrain—This confounded nonsense must stop. The right to a living wage and to strike in pursuit of that God-given right should not be surrendered. Teachers need the good life too. And our children need teachers who feel secure—secured teachers are better for improved education outcomes.
The teachers’ cause is right for educational uplift. It is a just cause. If teachers are better paid, it puts the government in a better position to demand better standards from them. Pay them and link it to better performance. And I urge teachers to tie your demands for better pay to your vote in November and in 2020. Put a price on your vote.
More of Dr. Hinds’ writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics and on his website www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.news. Send comments to [email protected]
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