TEACHER RAISES CONCERN OVER STAFF QUARTERS PAYMENT

By Seedy Jallow Provincial correspondent for Global Radio & TV

Mr. Ebrima William, a qualified teacher who has been teaching for many years in CRR North, told a GRTV reporter that the recent decision by the Gambia Teachers Union (GTU) to charge teachers a D300 staff quarters fee is not only unjustifiable, but also contrary to the very mandate of the Union which is to protect and promote the welfare of teachers.
He added that staff quarters are provided by the Government through the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) to motivate and retain teachers, especially those posted to remote and deprived areas.

"It is an incentive, not a business venture. To turn an incentive into a source of revenue collection from already poorly paid teachers defeats its purpose," he explained.
"Moreover, a Gambian teacher's salary is among the lowest in the sub-region. From this meager salary, we pay GTU dues, congress fees, mutual aid contributions, and now a quarters fee of D300. For a teacher in Grade 5 or 6 earning less than D6,000, D300 is a lot of money—money that should be used to buy food for our families and books for our children, not to pay rent for staff quarters," Mr. William stated.

He noted that the Gambia Teachers Union was formed to be the voice of educators. Instead of negotiating with the government to improve staff quarters and build more decent accommodation for teachers, the Union has turned into a rent collector. He stressed that its role should be to demand that the government fulfill its obligation to provide free, decent, and habitable accommodation as stated in their conditions of service.

He is calling on the GTU to immediately suspend the D300 fee, and on MoBSE to take full responsibility for teachers' accommodation to ensure that no teacher pays to be housed where he or she is posted to serve the nation.