Dispute over pay threatens school year

Teachers in the tiny West African state of Guinea-Bissau have suspended a strike over arrears, but students who began the year weeks late due to a cholera epidemic fear the lingering dispute may nullify the academic year. “We are really exasperated by repeated strikes in our education system,” said Maria da Costa, a student at Kwame Nkrumah high school in the capital, Bissau. “The government and teachers must come to agreement in order to save the school year.” The National Teachers’ Union (SINAPROF) last Thursday called a seven-day strike but suspended the stoppage on Sunday to give the government a chance to fulfill pledges made and missed in recent months. The start of the academic year - normally at the beginning of October - was delayed until December this school year due both to a cholera epidemic and a strike by SINAPROF over unpaid salaries. The trade union demanded payment of missed salaries since 2001 - about 800 million CFA francs (US $1.46 million) - as well as pay raises and better conditions. In December, when the government agreed to pay three months in arrears, school reopened. But in the weeks that followed, the government failed to satisfy all demands, leading the union to launch a new strike last week. “Salaries that have backed up since 2001 have not yet been paid, colleagues have not been given permanent status and we work in deplorable conditions,” SINAPROF president Vinca Mendes said last week. On Sunday, the government of Prime Minister Aristides Gomes pledged to meet teachers’ demands and set up a committee to monitor progress. And the following day 160,000 students returned to school. But the youngsters fear more disruptions. “The school year started late, but we could still cover 60 percent of the academic programme,” 20-year-old student Infali Cassama told IRIN. “We can’t have the school year declared null and void as happened in 2002-03.” That year, teachers staged numerous strikes over lack of pay, covering only 10 percent of the school programme by year’s end. The result was that the education minister invalidated the academic year in public schools. Many students resent being subject to such risks while counterparts in private schools - which have been in session since early September - are not. “The children of government ministers do not go to public schools - only poor people like me,” student da Costa said. “Perhaps that’s why the government isn’t too worried about respecting its agreements.”