QUESTION OF THE DAY
The state needs teachers to teach the children. The teachers have the duty to contribute to the development of the future generation while imparting knowledge and values to the pupils of today.
Survival however is a necessity if duties are to be performed with unbridled motivation. Where policy makers and service providers are obliged to work in harmony to promote the general welfare, dialogue should be encouraged and conditionality discouraged.
When people struggle against wrong doing they must have a minimum and maximum demand. This enables right fighters to be able to engage in bargaining to have a compromise. The Gambia Teachers Union should be encouraged to sit down with the Teachers for Change to draw up their minimum and maximum demands.
The state should objectively look at the programme and agree to meet the teachers fully, halfway or settle for the minimum. Anything short of this is to prolong a crisis that the state cannot afford to prolong if it is truly committed to the general welfare of the children in particular and the people at large.
