Slow down my teacher, you have come too fast

Teachers promised that we hadn’t seen anything, that strike proper was going to be unleashed in a manner few of us would forget in a long time.

The line was delivered by Wilson Sossion in a curled sneer, his thin moustache momentarily disappearing to reveal a red lip, then waved a thin finger to illustrate his point.

Our strike is fully protected, he said, then urged his fellow comrades to stay up until they were advised by the union leadership.

Now they, Sossion and Company, have told teachers to return to class on Monday as they pursue their case through the courts. The strike proper was yet to kick in, their two-week break is unlikely to be remembered for long as it delivered nothing spectacular.

Dropping the young man of the house to school this week, he inquired about a neighbour’s son, who was home. I told him he had reported back to school and returned home because their teachers were on strike.

“What’s a strike?” he pursued. I told him it happens when people refuse to work for more money.

“I wish our teachers are on strike!” he declared.

I instantly recognised his motivation was to skip school, not better recompense for teachers. But I suppose many teachers also enjoyed the break.

If there is any lesson that teachers should learn, it is that one cannot strike every year, unless they are making money during those self-imposed recesses. The other lesson is that they should negotiate with all the unions fighting on the same front. Their sudden unity wasn’t bound to yield much.