Thanks to shrewd mediating by the Ministry of Labour, the two sides have at last reached common ground on which to conclude their negotiations for more pay and better working conditions for teachers.

If anything, the accord is a big victory for education. By arriving at a compromise, the GTU and the Education Ministry have wisely abandoned positions bordering on self-centeredness and committed to measures that present a larger perspective for education.

Students have long craved the return of their teachers to the classroom. So, with CXC examinations looming, yesterday’s disclosure about the calling off of the strike couldn’t come sooner.

As we intimated yesterday, the GTU and the Ministry of Education had a lot at stake.

The union, bombarded by demands by its membership for bigger paychecks, felt a pay increase was an investment that government needed to make and therefore concluded that it had a legitimate reason for calling teachers away from the classroom.

The Education Ministry, believing it had to look at the bigger picture - its ability to afford “production” costs higher than the nation’s economy could absorb - sought to have GTU accept a package it decided was unreasonable.

“Nothing epitomizes the difference between positive and negative thinking as much as those who hold opposing views on the same issue,” we said. Yet both parties admirably abandoned their formerly unshakably positions and affirmed their obligation to the education of our children with clarity and conviction.

And that is as it should be.

We look forward with great optimism to the GTU and the Education Ministry continuing to forge a relationship that substitutes individual “win-win” positions for collaborative strategies that in large part determines the nature of teaching and the character of learning in the nation’s schools for many years to come.

It is said everywhere that no government can do it all, that in a sense governance is the responsibility of all of the people of a country.

In Guyana’s context, we urge the ministry and the union to sit down and talk as partners in education and come up with measures to strengthen equality of opportunity in education at all levels.

Moreover, we plea for collaborative efforts by union and ministry to improve the status of teaching, to make the classroom more conducive to learning, and to revitalize - or implement if that’s the case - research and scholarship at our learning institutions.

Guyana needs an education system that can assure the development of strong and stable leadership for future generations.