Striking teachers maintained their absentee record on day three of their strike resulting in the widespread closure yesterday of secondary and primary schools.
On Monday, Education Minister Dr Henry Jeffrey said that Chief Education Officer Ed Caesar was making preparations for students studying for examinations, should the teachers' strike be prolonged.
The teachers who began their industrial action last Wednesday are demanding an increase in the junior teachers' pay packet in line with the traditional public service minimum wage and want a 15% increase for all other teachers. The strike is expected to continue today.
Unlike last week many students yesterday failed to show up for classes, knowing the strike was going to happen.
In a press statement Guyana Teachers Union President, Sydney Murdock urged all teachers to disregard the 'blatant untruths' in the paid advertisement published by the Ministry of Education on Sunday in the Guyana Chronicle and Stabroek News.
The GTU statement added that it stood ready to engage the education ministry in meaningful discussions at any convenient time to them in an effort to bring about a closure to the 2002 salary dispute.
The Ministry of Education had written to the GTU indicating its willingness to start negotiations for salary increases for this year, but the GTU had said that it would not discuss 2003 salaries until those for 2002 had been settled.
When Stabroek News visited some of the schools yesterday morning, padlocks were seen on some doors, while others were open with a few pupils playing in the school yard. At Queens College only a handful of students, mainly from the second form, were seen sitting on the platform of the school's music hall. One student said that she had turned up for class at around 9:00am to find no one else there. She said some of her class teachers had warned them of the strike action.
The schoolgirl said it was about time the Ministry of Education and the teachers come to some agreement to resolve the issue.
"We are suffering right now, look, next week we have a test and with this going on that test would have to be put back."
According to another student, the action by the teachers is both good and bad. The student observed that while the teachers have a legitimate right to do what they are doing, at the same time the people who they are put in charge of are suffering.
At Queens College only the music teacher turned up for school yesterday, but he only spent about one hour teaching his class, dance.
The situation at St Joseph, Bishop's, St Roses, St Stanislaus and Christchurch was worse with the doors to the main buildings padlocked. However, while some students went home after realising no one was there to teach them, other students took the time to roam the streets. At least ten schoolgirls wearing the New Campbellville Secondary School uniform were seen on Sheriff street.
A fifth former of the school told this newspaper that many of the students who turned up yesterday, did so for ulterior motives. The young man said all of the classes were told of the strike, adding that the teacher even went as far as telling them to stay home because they were not reporting to work. According to the schoolboy he and a few other students only went to school because one of their teachers had organised a special class to help them with their School Based Assessment (SBA). In the South Georgetown area all of the secondary schools were tightly locked by midday. North Georgetown Secondary, Tutorial High, North Ruimveldt Multilateral and East La Penitence Secondary were all closed.
However, teachers from the Government Technical Institute and the Guyana Industrial Training Centre were at work, but student attendance was poor. The industrial action did not affect classes at the many private schools in the city. When Stabroek News passed around Marian Academy, Maes and New Guyana School classes were in progress.
Reports coming out of the other regions were similar to that in Georgetown. The Regional Education Officer of Region Four reported that his officers did not visit all of the schools on the East Coast, but from telephone calls made a significant number of teachers and students were absent.
He said from what he was told some of the students were told to stay home. He noted however that there were no reports of teachers locking students out of the school.
In Region Five the Education Officer reported that out of 20 schools visited, 17 were closed while the other three were open, but the attendance was below average. Region Six had a similar story to tell with students resorting to playing cricket and other games in the schoolyards.
There were no reports from Regions One, Two and Three, but Stabroek News understands that classes were severely affected. Teachers in Regions Seven and Eight kept up the strike and in Region Ten all of the schools were closed.
Meanwhile, apart from the schools mentioned above all of the Primary and Nursery Schools reported poor attendance. Only West Ruimveldt Primary, one of the leading primary schools for Common Entrance was open and a teacher was seen attending to some 40 students.
Asked at a press briefing on Monday what would happen to children taking exams if the strike action continued, Jeffrey said that Caesar had been asked to look at the issue.
He said that the union knew quite well that everyone was concerned about children's schooling, and as such the union was attempting to use the children as a means of pressure. However, Caesar had been working to ensure that arrangements were put in place for the SSEE and CXC.
Jeffrey told the Government Information News Agency that he was hopeful that the Chief Labour Officer Mohamed Akeel would be in a position to bring the two parties together to arrive at a positive decision to benefit all parties. (Nigel Williams and Miranda La Rose)