Teachers threaten strike

MASERU – A teachers’ trade union says another strike is imminent after the government allegedly failed to address their longstanding grievances.
Lesotho Association of Teachers (LAT)’s spokesman, Letsatsi Ntsibolane, said the Ministry of Education has reneged on its promise to resolve their problems.
A strike would upend the agreement signed between the government and teachers’ unions in September.
The biggest victims of the strike will be Grade 10 and 12 students writing their final examinations.

This is the crisis government was trying to avoid when it signed the agreement in September after much haggling while teachers boycotted classes for weeks.
Ntsibolane said the strike is likely to start today but the union is yet to decide its nature.
He said the government is now telling the union that it doesn’t have funds to meet its end of the agreement.

“We are surprised with the international journeys taken by the government officials yet they are saying they do not have funds,” Ntsibolane said.
Ntsibolane said teachers’ career and salary structure, which was one of their main grievances, was about to be resolved but the ministry is now pleading poverty. This, he said, was a violation of the agreement.

He said the only way to show the government that teachers are at their wits end is to strike.
Ntsibolane also accused the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) of refusing to implement some parts of the agreement.
Part of the agreement was that 24 teachers hired by the TSC should be placed in schools experiencing acute staff shortages.
The problem, he said, is that the “commission does not even want to meet us to discuss the issue.”

The only way to pressure the government to implement the agreement is a strike, he said.
The Career and Salary structure was supposed to be discussed between September and October.
During that time the government was going to revert principals to their previous salaries.
By November principals were supposed to be hired on permanent and pensionable terms. This month the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Works were to discuss ways to implement the Cabinet’s decision on principals’ gratuities.

The Ministry of Education is supposed to have requested the Ministry of Finance to consider the proposal to amend the laws to accommodate “50 percent gratuity and 50 percent monthly pension”.

The government also agreed that by the end of the year it would have paid substitute teachers and provided hardship allowances for permanent teachers.
Arrears owed to teachers were to be paid after approval from the Ministry of Finance.
The ministry also agreed to address the shortage of books by April next year.

Ntsibolane said their strike is likely to extend indefinitely if the government does not bow to pressure.
He said they made the decision to strike after numerous fruitless talks with the government.
On May 2 the three unions petitioned Prime Minister Thomas Thabane with their grievances. They also asked Thabane to fire Education Minister Professor Ntoi Rapapa for allegedly failing to address their grievances. The principal secretary of Education, Dr Thabang Lebese, was not available for comment as he was said to be in marathon meetings yesterday.

Nkheli Liphoto