JTA warns of continuing teacher migration before next school year
Published:Thursday | February 15, 2024 | 12:14 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
With numerous teachers now scouting job opportunities in developed countries with more attractive salaries outside Jamaica, Leighton Johnson, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), is hinting that chronic teacher migration may still be an issue for Jamaica to brace for at the end of this academic year.
In recent years, teacher migration has been a pressing issue in the country, given that it affects the quality of education of graduates for the workforce and the teaching profession in the island.
At the start of the 2023-24 academic year, while speaking during a general meeting of the Rotary Club of New Kingston, Johnson said, “Zeroing in on the last two years, Jamaica has lost approximately 10 per cent of its teachers to our overseas jurisdictions. If it is not treated with, this will become an even more chronic issue in the next three years, and, what is the reason for this current wave of teacher migration? The reason is prosperity as teachers in Jamaica are simply unable to comfortably take care of their families.”
Fast-forward to 2024, Johnson, while addressing the media at the JTA’s 60th Anniversary Celebration Media Launch, held at their offices in Kingston on Tuesday, said the matter is going to be compounded, notwithstanding the policy extensions that the Ministry of Education and Youth has provided for the teachers.
“There still remains a deficiency in our system. However, teachers make it work. Administrators make it work. What we are consistently indicating [is] that those who remain should not be overworked. They ought not to be burdened. Their timetables ought not to be extended,” Johnson said.
“[Regarding] the migration issue, the recruiters are still buoyant. They are still visible here. Even though I am away from my school office, I still have [requests for] recommendations and references coming to me to complete. Persons left in January, and there are those making arrangements to leave at the start of the next school year,” he said.
Johnson said there are still several teacher vacancies islandwide that have not been filled and were not filled from the last school year.
CAMPAIGN TO RETAIN TEACHERS
“As it relates to the whole campaign to retain teachers, our campaign is simply this. We need to pay the teachers so they will remain here. That is our campaign right off the bat,” Johnson said. “Ensure that our teachers are in the position to have some non-tangible benefits, access to homes at competitive rates, because like it or not, a teacher still, even though they have received an upgrade in salaries to some extent, they are still unable, a single teacher that is, to purchase a home on the open market. Their salaries still have not gotten to the point where they can comfortably do that.”
He said it is now time for Jamaicans to get to the place where a new approach is taken to funding education.
“It is necessary for us to be contemplating at this time a per capita ratio where we now look at what it is that is required to educate a child and fund accordingly,” he said.
The Ministry of Education and Youth has indicated that it has been giving schools between $17,000 and $19,000 per child at the secondary level for the year, which Johnson said has been the case for around nine years. At the primary level, the schools receive around $2,500 per child per year.
“When you compare that in terms of US dollars, it redounds to a little bit of money, a very little bit of money, and we’re saying that at this dispensation, with inflation, with the rising cost of goods and services, the rising cost of material and equipment, then there needs to be a significant difference in the approach that it takes to fund these institutions,” Johnson said.
He said when looking at the percentage that GDP equates to in relation to other jurisdictions that Jamaica is often compared to, the island is revealed to be woefully behind in terms of matching dollar for dollar.
He added that for the new funding arrangement, the JTA wants to see that there is an emergency fund in place and emergency procurement procedures so that the schools can access the funds to ensure the remedial work necessary to improve.
Johnson reiterated that regarding the payment schedule for graduate allowances and remote inducement allowances, there is an agreement.
“These should have been applied to teachers’ salaries effective April 1, 2022, so that application will take place April 1, 2024,, and the retroactive salaries will be paid in two tranches. It will be paid in August. Sixty per cent of the retroactive monies will be paid, 60 per cent in August and 40 per cent in December,” Johnson said. “What we have done too, we have ensured that we have an agreement with the Ministry of Education [and Youth] to ensure that all calculations are ratified and verified before.”
He also said that a technical committee has been established, inclusive of JTA members and with the agreement of the ministry. He said the confusion they saw last year would not continue.
In April 2023, a call was made for the promised technical committee to address anomalies that came up at the time during the compensation review.