A group of teachers has write other teachers, urging them to stand up for better conditions of services.

According to them, salaries of Civil Servants and other officials of Ministries Departments and Agencies  (MDAs), ranging from grade 14 down to 9 have been raised and even public servants like police and the army whist they are left with starvation wages.

These teachers says they want their salaries to be added as their present conditions of service compared to the cost of living has reduced them to destitute, desperate beggars and hustlers.

For this reason, they call on other teachers to hold on to their service until the government meets their demands. See letter below:

“Dear Teachers

It could be recalled that the Government of His Excellency Julious Maada Bio promised us , a better conditions of service and an enviable profession upon the launch of its Flagship Project “The Free Quality Education (FQE).

Two years after H E President Bio assumed office a 30% increment was made to the salary of each pincoded teacher. Which was not the expectation of many of us,  but we endured courage and hope for a better salary Reforms. Two years has passed again since that meagre sum was added to our take-home and nothing more to it.

We have seen the harmonisation of the salaries of Civil Servants and other officials of Ministries Departments and Agencies  (MDAs), ranging from grade 14 down to 9 as at recent as March 2022. We have also witnessed increment of Politician’s salaries whilst we are left with STARVATION WAGES . The Salaries of other Public Servants like ; the police,  army, prisons etc been exponentially increased.

 Our elders or seniors in the similar profession (Lecturers), been given an increment of 50% in two installments.  Whilst we are told by the Minister of MBSSE that we cannot be paid more than this because we are the largest workforce.

Ladies and gentlemen,  it’s abundantly empirical that we are being treated with recklessness by the government and by our very Minister Dr. Sengeh. Very recently in Bo, he misinformed the President  that Teachers welfare and conditions of service have been adequately taken care of.

Colleagues all, our present conditions of service compared to the cost of living has reduced us to destitute, desperate beggers and hustlers.

Remember we have our homes to run, our families to manage,  our personal affairs to care for, the education of our children, the burden of our external relationships and a lot more. What future do we have to show to our children,  what achievements and what accounts do we have to tell our children??? ‘Poverty’, yes poverty! That’s all we have as a future.

The time is now to tell the government that we are humans and we deserve a better pay and a better conditions of service.  We need a complete overhaul of our conditions of service and salaries.

The fight is not about politics as we are not active politicians. It’s about doing due diligence.  “What is good for the Goose should be good for the Ganda”. If an official at Finance who is a university graduate in Economics is paid 10,000,000 leones, what of the same graduate with the same qualification in the school or classroom? Is he or she not Sierra Leonean worthy of the same emoluments? This is not about politics,  afterwards we are answerable to any government of the day. This is about our welfare and our socio-economic wellbeing. We are the Ministers, MPs, Lawyers,  Judges and the likes of our families.  They depend on what we take home at the end of the day.

What is wrong being a teacher in Sierra Leone,  our Mother land?

Remember the first law of Nature “Self”.

From the above we are immediately demanding that;

Government to increase our salaries to a living wage,

All pin coded teachers that are not in the payroll be paid ASAP

Second term subsidies be paid ASAP

In light of this, it’s prudent that we hold on to our services until the Government meets our demands.

NO SERVICE TO THE NATION,  UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET.

TEACHERS SOLIDARITY  FOR ALL TEACHERS 🖍️✏️🖍️✏️”