Teachers burnt out and fed up – Anderson

Immediate Past President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Dr Garth Anderson has said that a change in a regulation by the Ministry of Education of not allowing 10 per cent of teachers from different schools to be granted study and vacation leave is severely affecting the health and well-being of the island’s teachers.

Anderson, who was addressing over 150 teachers at the half-yearly meeting of the St Catherine branch of the JTA, held at the Marlie Acres Church of Christ in Old Harbour, St Catherine, last Friday, said that teachers who have accumulated vacation leave and those eligible for study leave are burnt out and fed up and are unable to perform in the best interest of students.

According to Anderson, there is a situation where some five years ago, it was a policy of the Ministry of Education that 10 per cent of teachers from different schools who meet the qualifications would be granted study or vacation leave.

LOST LEAVE

“We don’t have this any longer. What we have is an average of five per cent and under of our teachers being granted vacation and study leave across the system,” Anderson disclosed.

According to him, this situation is creating a problem because many teachers are losing their vacation leave, which cannot be accumulated and there is no guarantee that the ministry would pay them.

“Our argument is that if we continue with this policy, very soon, we are going to have tired teachers in the system not being able to operate at their optimum, and you will be getting diminishing returns.”

He noted that it is a pressing problem for the JTA because the ministry is saying that the regulation states that it is up to 10 per cent, and this means that it could be less than 10.

“We will continue to make the point to the ministry to look carefully at the policy it has taken on in recent years because it is not going to work out in the best interest of education, and our young people are going to suffer and, ultimately, the progress of the country,” he asserted.

Turning to the issue of an earlier call by the association for Government to appoint a portfolio minister of education, Anderson said that the JTA has not given up on the request.

“We are fully aware that it is the Government’s call to appoint the education minister, so while we wait, we are working with the acting minister ... to ensure that policies and programmes are ­promoted in the best interest of the education system and to the benefit of our children,” he said.