–says Chief Education Officer

CHIEF Education Officer (CEO), Saddam Hussain, said that the Ministry of Education has decided that it will immediately expel any child whose parents are abusive to teachers in schools, following two separate altercations involving parents and primary school teachers this week.

Additionally, Hussain told the Guyana Chronicle, that parents who display any form of hostility towards a teacher will be banned from entering school compounds. According to him, no form psychical and verbal abuse towards teachers will be tolerated.

“We are reviewing right now our safety protocols for schools and where we find that the parents are culpable or where a parent has deliberately assaulted a teacher. There are a number of actions we are looking to take, first we are looking at the removal of the child from the institution,” Hussain said in an invited comment.

The ministry, Hussain also said, will be looking to impose additional sanctions outside of the removal of children from schools.

“We will employ any other sanction which we believe is appropriate to that kind of action. We will also ban some parents from entering the school compound, we are not playing with this. You cannot go to the school and beat the teachers,” he stressed.

In the event of a disagreement between a parent and teacher, the CEO reminded the public that there are established mechanisms for redress.

“If there is an issue with a teacher at the school, the parent’s job is to go the head teacher and resolve the issue if the head teacher is not receptive then you can visit the Department of Education and if that doesn’t work then you can come to the Ministry of Education, the Chief Education Officer is available to any member of the public almost anytime.”

And Hussain stressed that abuse should never be an option.

“There is no need for verbal abuse or physical abuse and the ministry of education stands with each and every teacher across the country against these forms of abuse. We will not tolerate this.”
Further, Hussain reminded that teachers must also refrain from using corporal punishment in the classroom.

“Parents must understand that they can’t go into a school and beat a teacher likewise teachers must follow the guidelines when they are going to use corporal punishment,” he added.

Hussain’s comments followed two altercations at Georgetown schools.

On Wednesday, it was reported that a graduate teacher, Shawn Marshall, was assaulted at the Graham’s Hall Primary School. Teachers across the country on Thursday wore black in solidarity of their colleagues some also took part in protest action. But on Thursday morning, another teacher was physically assaulted by a parent at the St Angela’s Primary School. The teacher whose identity has not yet been revealed sustained injuries and a swollen face. Both incidents have been reported to the Guyana Police Force.

Speaking at one of the protests, President of the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) Mark Lyte, said the union will continue to rally alongside teachers.

“This is becoming too frequent where teachers are being assaulted by parents and guardians. It is something that has to be addressed so we are going to continue to make a call to the ministry to get satisfaction… The aggression displayed by the parent is unacceptable,” Lyte stated during a live broadcast on Facebook.