Schools stay shut despite official guarantees

State schools remained shut in the capital of Guinea Bissau on Monday despite government promises to open classes for the new school year, which was already supposed to have started almost two months ago. At the weekend, Prime Minister Aristide Gomes gave assurances that teachers would be back before their blackboards on Monday morning after the delay, caused by health concerns according to the government, and a dispute over pay arrears, according to teachers. “The government is going to do everything possible to guarantee the normal functioning of schools,” said Gomes at Saturday’s annual school-opening ceremony, held this year in the central town of Mansoa and broadcast on state television and radio. But kids continued to play in the dirt streets of the seafront capital Bissau, or carry out household chores as classrooms remained locked and bolted. Private schools opened at the beginning of September and last year children went back to class in state schools on October 4. But this year the government pushed back the school year due to a massive cholera epidemic, which by late November had claimed 394 lives and affected 24,227. Teachers’ unions however said the real reason for the long delay was the government’s inability to pay months of arrears. Non-payment of teachers’ wages has repeatedly disrupted classes since 2003. According to the main teachers’ union, SINAPROF, teachers contracted to work in state schools are owed six months of unpaid wages, while short-term teaching staff are due two months’ cash. SINAPROF wants these arrears cleared and a law passed to guarantee teachers’ standards of employment such as a minimum wage and basic work conditions. On Friday, Education Minister Tcherno Djalo promised only two months of salary arrears would be paid, at a cost of US $700,000, by Monday morning. Venca Mendes the president of SINAPROF, could not confirm whether the promised money had been paid or not. The cash-strapped government of Guinea Bissau had to appeal to donors in November to find US $1.5 m to fund a package of quick impact anti-cholera projects. The government has also been blighted by months of feuding between President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira and his former prime minister. But that rift appears to have been resolved with the appointment of new prime minister, Aristide Gomes, earlier this month.