SO our teachers have resumed their nation-wide strike action.
And the Government has chosen to remain silent in the face of this national crisis. This is unbelievable.
The least this nation expects of its leaders is to step out and tell them whether their children will return to their classes Monday next week or not.
Yesterday, most schools in Honiara, and throughout the country, closed their doors and sent their students home.
The strike, they say, will continue until the Government pays up arrears due to them and address the teachers’ relevelling exercise.
In the face of the Government’s apathy, it is unlikely teachers would return to classes soon.
Yet, the Government didn’t careless.
Any responsible government would have step out and explain to that nation what it thinks about the current strike and what action it would take to resolve it.
But the silence coming from the Minister of Education and Human Resource, Dick Ha’amori and Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo, is deafening.
Are these two serious in addressing the issue or do they simply want to deny the nation’s children their right to an education?
Our children have missed two weeks of schooling when the teachers started the strike action in late January.
Government did well at that time, albeit its stubborness, to end the strike by signing a memorandum of understanding with Solomon Islands National Teachers Association (SINTA).
Teachers agreed to return to their classrooms because of that agreement.
They believe that anything that is on black and white would be honoured. At least that’s what everyone else thinks, too.
But as is now apparent, those government signatures on that agreement were nothing but a game of deception.
They simply deceived the teachers to returning to their classes while they returned to their old game of ignorance, negligence, and apathy.
The strike action must not continue. And this Government must ensure this is so.
If Mr Ha’amori and Mr Lilo could not resolve the issue, then they better take heed of Opposition leader Dr Derek Sikua’s call.
Step down and allow those capable of addressing national issues such as this to take on the helm.
Our children’s education is too important to be treated with such contempt.
That the Government must know!
