We have called for no more teacher strikes again because it is
becoming a perennial problem.
Not because we do not support the
teacher’s infact we support them whole heartedly.
What we have said and will continue to say is that the problem with education must be resolved because it is in the interest of all of us in this country. They say if you thing education is expensive try ignorance.
This country cannot afford that, and no one is his or her right sense can prescribe that for an aspiring nation.
The bottom line is that it seems as if education has come down the pecking order. The priority for this government seems to be in the order of Electricity, Agriculture, Free Healthcare and Road Construction. We do not even know now whether education has dropped down below even the fifth or sixth order.
This is serious because we do not know how a country can develop if education is no longer a priority. It was President Momoh who said
that education was not a right but a privilege. Are we now going back to those days? Is education now only for those children whose parents can afford the million Leones school fees charged by private schools? Where is this country going to? What is happening to our politicians? For want of an argument one would say that the politicians are very selfish and self serving.
We say so because we only saw through a
government gazette which very few people buy that the salary of the President and his ministers were increased some time ago, along with the rate of per diem and the salaries of parliamentarians.
But when it comes to the increase of salaries for the ordinary people it has to be strike action or chaos. Is this not selfishness? This is why the government must honour its promise, because if they can find money to pay themselves and they can also find money to fund the other priority programs then they must give the teachers their due.
They need it and we support them.