TEACHERS UNDETERRED

A report that some Jamaican teachers who migrate to the United Kingdom (UK) are paid significantly less than their British counterparts will not deter others from leaving the Jamaican classroom for England, according to president-elect of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, Mark Malabver.

“It (salary) is far more attractive than what obtains in Jamaica, and it is not by accident that the UK is recruiting Jamaican teachers,” Malabver said.

Last week, British newspaper The Observer reported that some teachers who had been recruited by the Harris Federation, England’s second-largest academy chain, were being paid approximately £10,000 less annually than UK-trained teachers.

It noted that the Harris Federation has recruited more than 150 teachers from Jamaica since 2018.

According to the newspaper, sister publication to the UK-based Guardian, competent Jamaican teachers have spent years working in Harris schools while still being classed as ‘unqualified’. As a result, they are paid less than their qualified UK-trained counterparts.

It noted that as of last year, England’s national pay scale for teachers stated that less experienced staff with qualified-teacher status could be paid up to £47,666 in inner London, rising to a maximum of £56,959 for more experienced professionals.

However, teachers deemed ‘unqualified’ were paid a ­maximum of £37,362 regardless of previous experience overseas. ‘Unqualified’ Jamaican teachers are exempt from income tax for their first two years in England.

Teachers who migrate to the UK are generally classified as ‘unqualified’. But a fast-track system to obtain qualified teacher status is allotted to those recruited from the European Union and the United States.

English, mathematics, and science teachers from Jamaica, India, Ghana, and Nigeria are also placed on this fast-track route. But teachers of other subjects from these countries work in UK schools on a lower ‘unqualified teachers’ pay scale.

The school is responsible for the teachers gaining qualified status, and the UK’s National Education Union said all recruited staff should be put through the qualified teacher status application process within a year, the British newspaper stated.

‘Greener pastures’

However, a Jamaican teacher who spoke with the newspaper believes that his school is deliberately delaying his process to save money. He has been working as an unqualified teacher in the UK for four years.

The frustrated teacher likened it to the Windrush scandal.

However, while he believes that UK schools should move with haste to ensure that Jamaican teachers obtain qualified teacher status, Malabver told The Gleaner that based on his canvassing of teachers who have migrated to the UK, those concerns are not widespread.

According to him, teachers in the UK are generally impressed with the “greener pastures” they have found.

“I know of teachers who have migrated to the UK, for example, and they have told me that there are schools in which the entire math department is 100 per cent Jamaican and the entire science department is 100 per cent Jamaican, so clearly, it is attractive,” he said.

“The teachers who I have spoken to over there speak about the resources that they have at their disposal. They speak about the support that they get, particularly at the mid-management level,” he added.

And although some may have been unsettled by the cost of accommodation, Malabver said the prices for food, which are comparably low, often compensate.

“I don’t get the impression, though, that they are not seeing their way through. Teachers can easily save close to $2 million a year if they are working in the UK,” he said.

Jamaica has been suffering from chronic teacher migration, with the issue being blamed for the consistent mediocre performance of students in external exams.

If not treated, Malabver believes that the teacher shortage will cause the country’s education system to “crumble”.

“Classes have to be merged whenever there is a shortage, so teachers will have more students to teach in one particular class. Additionally, sessions will have to be added to teachers’ timetables. That invariably leads to teacher burnout,” he said.

Stakeholders have clamoured for an increase in teacher salaries to treat the issue. A trained teacher graduate earns a minimum of $3 million annually, approximately £14,000.

In August, Minister of Education Fayval Williams pointed to a decrease in the number of teacher resignations.

Data from the ministry revealed that the number of teachers who are resigning from the sector has decreased over the last three years.

In May to August of 2022, eight hundred and fifty-two teachers resigned. Four hundred and eighty-nine teachers resigned in 2023 over that same period. So far this year, over that same period, 135 teachers have resigned.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com