Information reaching this medium reveals that the current efforts to restart negotiations by the Teaching Service Trade Group Negotiating Council (TSTGNC), which is made up of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union, representing the employees, and Government, as the employer, with a view to develop new terms and conditions for teachers across the country, is currently being frustrated by Government, notwithstanding the teachers are still continuing to give their valuable service to support the Government’s flagship project.
The SLTU, according to sources, have done all in their power to continue to appeal to their teachers, despite being accused by other splinter groups, such as the Voice of Teachers, as lacking the moral high ground to speak to the issues affecting the plight of teachers.
A close source from the Ministry of Labour has intimated this medium that the Sierra Leone Teachers Union has long ago submitted a list of representatives that will represent the employees in the Teaching Service Trade Group Negotiating Council (TSTGNC), but several attempts to get the representation of the Government side has been faced with incessant delays from the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education.
The SLTU, our source went on, has approached the Ministry of Education and Labour to get the negotiations started amidst the current pressure they are receiving from their membership, but Government has shown complete lack of interest to sit and discuss a very reasonable package for the teachers.
Government continues to meet other obligations like procuring core textbooks, which cost millions of Leones, allocating 21% of the national budget to the Free and Quality Education, completing the procurement for school buses and launching of the school feeding program, amongst others, while neglecting the critical aspect of teachers who are the bedrock of the FAQE.
The SLTU, our source concludes, is getting frustrated over the lack of commitment on the side of Government to restart negotiations. Government has failed to submit their list of representatives which will have to be gazetted for 21 days.
Nightwatch has been reliably informed that the SLTU is all set with all their demands based on consultations with their membership and only waiting now to sit with Government to discuss these demands, but the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education has failed to provide the leadership to kick start the negotiations even when the matter continues to receive very high attention.
Alpha Osman Timbo, the current Minister of Education, who many believe has what it takes to solve the problem of his colleagues, has been very lackadaisical just to set up the negotiating team on behalf of Government not to say start negotiations.
If the Ministry of Education is serious about the FAQE the issues of quality should be the essence and the teachers stand out very clearly in all of this, but if we could spend a whole year in just constituting the negotiating group when will the negotiations end? It could even have resulted in the establishment of new terms and conditions for teachers.
The current stalemate has got the tendency to plunge the Free and Quality Education into shambles, as the 2018/2019 academic year is almost coming to the middle and government continues to spend huge sums in the procuring materials largely because there are huge kickbacks related with those procurement activities. It is a situation that is different from improving the conditions of teachers.
Teachers across the country are getting bored by the day as they continue to hear the Ministry of Finance and Education lavishing millions of dollars in different procurement activities, which has the likelihood of provoking a national teachers’ strike if not addressed immediately.