IT’S THE After a number of long years, education unions finally managed to make a stand and the result was immediately visible. Education was halted and the government immediately came to the negotiating table. However, no satisfactory result has been achieved. This means that schools will remain closed for longer.
The education field has experienced enormous fragmentation in recent years in terms of the unions that are active there. For example, the previous Minister of Education, Science and Culture (OWC), Henri Ori, once said that it was impossible to negotiate with 32 unions. With that statement the minister got to the heart of the problem. Anyone who can’t make a fist is not taken seriously.
However, the fact that the government, DNA and judiciary receive sky-high salaries, while teachers have to make ends meet with SRD 15,000, is also not acceptable
Now the teachers have succeeded. From primary to higher education, unions have signed up to fight. The government itself allowed this to happen. Instead of using the relative peace of recent years – there were no major strikes – to improve the position of teachers, a grab-and-go strategy has been applied. The teachers have complained for years and have said that they can no longer solve the problem. The handling of their promotions and the payment of their allowances has also been structurally late for many years.
The fact that the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has seen a huge turnover of ministers in recent years, all of whom have given substance to educational changes in their own way, has also caused a lot of dissatisfaction among this professional group. Add to this the late administrative handling of the interests of educators and the low salaries, and we have today’s situation: a huge exodus. Teachers leave education or leave the country.
However, there is also politics being done with trade union interests. For example, VHP member Reshma Mangre, who has been promising for years that there would be elections at the BVL/Als, which she represents, has reappeared on the ‘battleground’. Mangre, who said in 2023 that teachers have never thanked her for all her hard work and then stated that teachers are doing well, now says she stands in solidarity with this group that says it has been neglected for years. BVL/Als has now passionately joined the battle and even declared the moment of working together as historic. Remarkably, this milestone coincides with a period of government in which her party is not in power.
Although the government immediately started negotiations, they do not appear to be easy conversations. Teachers want to see money and that is understandable. The government has little room to grant increases because the country is financially strapped. However, the fact that the government, DNA and judiciary receive sky-high salaries, while teachers have to make ends meet with SRD 15,000, is also not acceptable. It is hoped that both parties – government and educational unions – are aware that young Suriname is suffering greatly from these actions. And that a reasonable solution can be achieved in the short term.
