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The People’s Progressive Party-led (PPP) government has signaled in a notice to the public that it intends to penalize teachers for their strike action, now in its sixth day. “Teachers will not be paid for the days for which they were unauthorizedly absent.”
In a move that is clearly designed to break the highly successful industrial action called by the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), in a joint statement, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development said they “have received from each of the eleven (11) Education Districts, a list of teachers who have not reported for duty at their assigned schools and have not received the necessary leave approval and/or permission.”
Teachers from across Guyana have responded in their numbers to the GTU-called strike action and have shocked authorities with their numbers especially in areas considered the PPP’s stronghold. The Government of Guyana has tried feebly to characterize the strike as “political” in nature, but teachers pushed back, saying it was about the money. Wages and salary increases have been at the center of the stike, among other issues.
In their missive, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development state that the teachers’ “unauthorized action constitutes a breach of their conditions of service and their statutory duties and attracts legal sanctions.”
