Govt. concerned about school dropout, learning loss

May 15, 2024 News

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand during her press conference on Tuesday.

– as teachers ramp up strike action for better pay

Kaieteur News – With the resumption of the countrywide teachers’ strike, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand on Tuesday said that the absence of the educators in classrooms can lead to learning loss and dropout among children.

The minister made the comments during a press conference, which she hosted at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) where she addressed several matters regarding the education sector.  Commenting on the impact of the strike action on the education system, Minister Manickchand said “So any teacher who stays away from a classroom will cause some disruptions and it will have a negative impact on the system and our children and we are always concerned about that.”

She added that during the COVID-19 period, the world learned that absences from the classroom will result in learning loss and can result in early school leaving (school dropout). It was reported that having commenced their strike action last week, teachers on Monday hit the streets in their numbers as they continue to press government for salary increases encompassing a multi-year agreement from 2019-2023. And while the educators were on the streets officials of the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) and the Ministry of Education met with the Chief Labour Officer at the Ministry of Labour in conciliation talks to hammer out terms for the ending of the strike and a way forward.

The meeting did not yield a settlement on Monday and saw the two sides continuing the talks on Tuesday. The minister at her press conference noted that while it would be premature of her to speak on the proceedings of the conciliation at this time, she explained that her ministry had written to the Minister of Labour for intervention into the issue.

“What are we conciliating about or what is the deadlock, the deadlock is the Union saying they want salary increases from 2019 to 2023 and the ministry or the Government of Guyana is saying we are ready, willing and happy to engage in discussion on salary increases from 2024 onwards. So the conciliation process is really about the timeline. So what we have a deadlock on is the timeline…We are trying to get the Ministry of Labour to intervene to determine which timeline we should look at, so that is happening right now,” she related.

Kaieteur News had reported that during a virtual press conference last week Tuesday, the Union’s President, Dr. Mark Lyte had said that since the 29-day strike held in February, the Union was unable to have discussions with the government on the multi-year proposals for increases in salaries. It was reported that the multi-year proposal covers a period of five years, 2019 to 2023. The Union had proposed a 25 percent salary increase in 2019 and a 20 percent increase for 2020-2023. In a statement back in March, the ministry’s Chief Education Officer (CEO), Saddam Hussain had maintained the Ministry of Education’s position on the GTU multi-year agreement has not changed adding that “any multi-year agreement must start from the year 2024, not retroactively.”

At another press conference on Friday last, Lyte had said that they were ready to go to arbitration over the stalled salary talks. The disclosure was made during a press conference at the Union’s headquarters on Woolford Avenue. Dr. Lyte was asked to what extent the union is willing to go in pursuing the grievance procedure; given that the government has refused to discuss the timeframe they requested the collective bargaining agreement.

• children, Impact, learning loss, Minister Priya Manickchand, teachers strike