Dear Editor,
SOLIDARITY with those who struggle is one of most constructive things we can do in society. Today the teachers in Guyana who are in their classrooms deserve all our support.
Nearly half of all teachers are still teaching our children. The ones on the picket lines are there because of political and some very culturally regressive reasons.

Did you know that of the 13,500 teachers in Guyana, only 4,500 are with GTU? If you think teachers are oppressed, ask the teacher trainees who saw their income go from $12,400 to $104,000 in a matter of three years! And ask the thousands who are getting low-cost mortgage to build houses on subsidised house lots, or those who get the duty free benefit for vehicles, or the thousands of recipients of GOAL scholarships worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ask them!

And ask them what GTU ever did for them. Ask Coretta McDonald what the APNU+AFC did for them when they couldn’t even get a meeting with the Minister of Education. Give your solidarity where it will be meaningful and consequential – to the teachers who have said no to an illegitimate and politically orchestrated strike.

Sincerely,
Dr. Randy Persaud