PRESIDENT of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), Mr. Colin Bynoe says anyone who is guilty of violence against teachers should be made to face jail time.

Addressing members of the media yesterday in a press conference at GTU headquarters, Woolford Avenue, Georgetown, Mr. Bynoe asserted that this will be one of the proposals the union will be making at the upcoming Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT) Conference.
This conference will be held in Guyana from August 4-9, 2013 under the theme ‘Improving the professional status of teachers in the Caribbean’ and participants are expected from 24 Caribbean territories.
According to Mr. Bynoe, they have been examining the situation in other countries and have come up with this common approach in which no one who assaults a teacher should face a lesser penalty than jail time.
Mr. Bynoe stated that just as teachers are faced with severe penalties if they unleash violence against students, similarly children must be given firm penalties so that they can understand that’s not the way to go.
Additionally, he noted that parents and relatives of students who are of the view that it is right to physically harm teachers should also face jail time.
In this regard, he said that he has asked his teachers to remain bonded together and be each other’s keeper, since the time has come in Guyana for persons to stop disrespecting teachers by way of physical harm.
Also speaking on the issue of violence against teachers, General Secretary of the GTU, Ms. Coretta McDonald maintained that it is their view that no student should at anytime assault a teacher.
Pointing out that recently there has been an upsurge of violence in schools and more so violence against teachers, she noted that the education ministry does have policies in place to deal with such occurrences.
According to her, GTU’s policy is that any child who would have raised his or her hand at a teacher should be severely punished, in that the child should be expelled from that school.
She stated that at the upcoming CUT conference, they will be addressing this issue as a unit in order to arrive at a common ground which they will use to present to the Ministers of Education from the various territories.