CRY OF SCIENCE TEACHER DROUGHT

Education Minister Fayval Williams is being urged by the Association of Science Teachers of Jamaica (ASTJ) to commission an audit of public schools to fully understand the challenges facing administrators as scores of teachers walk off the job.

In a staunch pushback against critics, Williams reported on Monday that 167 educators have resigned since July and that nearly a thousand more were set to enter the system from teachers’ colleges.

But executive member of the ASTJ, Desmond Campbell, said that the attrition numbers are likely to mount, with schools reporting a chronic shortage of science teachers two weeks before the start of the new academic year.

ASTJ consists of 15 different groups of educators from the early childhood, primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.

In a Gleaner interview on Monday, Campbell, the principal lecturer at Moneague College in St Ann, said that schools are short of teachers mainly in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). He said that administrators have been forced to fill the gap with teachers void of the requisite knowledge.

“What most schools have are teachers of science and not science teachers,” Campbell quipped.

He explained that the former are educators who are proficient in other areas but are asked to deliver science lessons because trained science teachers have left the system.

Campbell said that the ASTJ has had to assist untrained science teachers who reach out for assistance in delivering lessons.

“They (trained teachers) are in grossly short supply ... . Fresh persons who taught social studies last year are being asked to teach science this year. They are overwhelmed. They don’t know what to do.

“You will not know what is happening unless a personnel audit is done and you look at the file to see what they are certified to do and what they are currently doing. That needs to be done to fix the crisis we have,” he said.

He said students are being short-changed, resulting in a shift in grading schemes.

Campbell told The Gleaner that students are no longer being marked for accuracy but for showing a modicum of understanding of a particular topic.

“What it means is that students who are certified out there are not necessarily competently certified, though they may be certified competent,” he said.

“The principals’ association of Jamaica will not necessarily give a true picture because they are protecting their jobs. We will not get the full idea unless an audit of the 26,000 educators islandwide is conducted.”

The education minister has been under increasing pressure to address the shortage of teachers in some schools as reports emerge of a worrying trend in resignations.

Checks by The Gleaner with a handful of schools in Clarendon revealed that four teachers have tendered resignations from Kellits High, one from Kemps Hill High, and five from Clarendon College.

In St Mary, three teachers have left Brimmer Vale High, two have resigned from Islington High, and one from Carron Hall High.

Several schools in St Catherine indicated that they remain unsure of staff complement which, they have said, can only be accurately assessed in the first week of the school year.

However, Spanish Town Primary School principal Rogae Kirlew noted that only two of 68 teachers have resigned.

He said interviews conducted have been successful in terms of filling the positions.

Williams acknowledged that the number of resignations was expected to climb in the coming weeks – they more than doubled from 80 last week – but maintained her initial stance that this was not uncommon in the profession.

“The teaching profession, like any other profession, has attrition annually. Any profession in Jamaica, anywhere in the world, has attrition that private companies plan for [and] us in Government plan for as well,” she said in response to suggestions that the ministry has been lacklustre in its approach to teacher resignation.

She said 964 specialist teachers who recently completed their studies are available for employment in the public sector, 111 of whom are early childhood teachers.

Some 121 of the new graduates were recipients of government scholarships and have been bonded for five years. Ninety-five per cent of them are STEM-trained teachers.

Other strategies to combat the issue include a voluntary relocation programme where specialist teachers have been redeployed as general teachers.

She said approximately 70 teachers have been recruited under the Jamaica-Cuba Bilateral Programme, while schools have been pre-approved to employ replacement teachers and extend the tenure for educators scheduled to go on retirement on a part-time basis.

Schools are allowed to engage final-year student teachers, redeploy teachers, and merge small classes.

Additionally, schools have been permitted to hire university graduates with first degrees but who do not have teaching diplomas.

This decision challenges at least one provision of the Jamaica Teaching Council Bill, still under review, which identifies a teacher as completing a bachelor’s degree in education or its equivalent or, alternatively, a first degree with a postgraduate diploma.

Williams said that the bill is subject to review.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com