By Tabora Bojang
The president of the Gambia Teachers’ Union, Ismaila Ceesay, has warned that the Union may declare a sit-down strike in the coming days, if the government fails to honour payment of the School Improvement Grant, SIG, meant for the upkeep of schools among other precarious situations faced by schools and teachers.
The SIG was introduced following the abolition of school fees in public schools and is meant to reduce parental education costs and help schools to financially address their basic needs, including payment of ancillary staff and provision of teaching and learning materials.
But according to the GTU president, payment of the grant to schools has not been made at the right time, causing serious problems for the schools. He added that government only acts when it is pushed to the wall by the Union.
Mr Ceesay claimed that arrears for last year alone went up to D71M which was only paid following a threat by teachers’ union to go on strike.
“The SIG does not only take care of schools’ running costs but also pays salaries of certain staff like bursars, secretaries, librarians, security and caretakers and provide books for children. Since the beginning of this academic year, the SIG has not been paid leading to nonpayment of ancillary staff in most schools for three months now. How are these people going to receive their salaries if the SIG is not paid? he asked.
Subvention to schools
The GTU president further alleged that payment of subventions to board schools has also not been respected, leading to nonpayment of staff of board schools.
“Today is November 7th [Friday] and yet no money has hit the accounts of teachers in subvented schools, meaning thousands of teachers are without money. Monies are outstanding, Principals have pre-financed the supply of textbooks last year, through borrowing books from vendors. At least by now all grade 10 students should have been supplied with text books. Under these circumstances, I am not ruling out a sit-down strike anytime from now,’’ the GTU president said.
Absence of textbooks in schools
According to the Teachers’ Union president, students in primary and junior schools have been in the classroom without textbooks for “many years now.”
“This is very much concerning to us and we have engaged the Ministry but they responded that the books are going to be printed in India, and they are expecting them anytime soon,’’ he said.
The GTU president, who is also the Principal of Latrikunda Sabiji Upper Basi School, said the ministry of finance and the National Assembly Finance Committee need to urgently ensure that the budget for education is properly used for the purposes it is intended to avoid the problems in the sector.
Contacted about these issues, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education Louis Moses Mendy, told The Standard that the shipment of books printed in India is expected to arrive in the country by the end of this month.
On issues of subvention to board schools, PS Mendy explained that payment was done but delayed for this month.
“We have already processed payments and sent it to the Treasury Department from there it will be sent to the Central Bank and then to the various collection points and this is why it is delayed. Some get their pay from banks and some from schools, so they will receive the salaries based on their location,” he said.
On the SIG, PS Mendy confirmed that it’s still not paid to schools but stressed that it is being posted this week and processing will commence before the weekend.
On the allegations that new Grade 10 students are without textbooks, PS Mendy confirmed that books could “not be printed because they did not know the number of students” that will be transiting to Grade 10 amid result delays.
“But this morning, I had discussions with GPPC and the Gambian writers about it and we are going to release money for printing to start for the Grade 10 textbooks,’’ he concluded.
