Gov’t urged to implement better strategies to retain teachers
Veteran educator says that remuneration of ‘resilient’ tutors needs to be addressed; migration of experience impacting violence in schools
Published:Thursday | May 16, 2024 | 12:10 AMRochelle Clayton/Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
Deputy Opposition Spokesperson on Education and Community Development, Dr Kenneth Russell, is urging that the Jamaican government implements strategies to retain the country's teachers amid the yearly migration.
Dr Russell was speaking at the Maroon Town Division's inaugural teachers' luncheon on Friday evening. He pointed out that the yearly migration is not a new phenomenon as it has spanned multiple administrations. However, he said that the respective governments have done a poor job at managing the issue.
“I guarantee you that in about two months, we are going to start having the conversation again about migration of teachers.
“The point here is that while this is a recurrent issue, we have not managed it well. We do not have, as a country, a strategy for dealing with the migration of teachers and this is critical because when teachers go, it's hard to find someone to take their place,” said Dr Russell.
He went on to rubbish a strategy currently being used by the Ministry of Education and Youth (MoEY) where final-year student teachers from accredited institutions are engaged to fill areas of specialisation for which there is short supply.
According to Dr Russell, while it is a good idea to bring new recruits into the education system, this strategy is not helping as it takes an educator “four to seven years to master the craft”.
“And now the ministry has a strategy which includes bringing over trainees who are in their final year of teacher training to come over into the classroom, which is great training for that teacher, but I told you, four to seven years to master your craft. I did not say in your fourth year.”
He continued, “So if you lose a teacher with 15 years' experience and you get a teacher who is in their third or fourth year of teacher training, you're not really replacing that teacher.”
However, last August, Education Minister Fayval Williams shared that there was a 73 per cent decline in the number of teachers who resigned from the public sector since the start of 2023. She further shared that approximately 427 teachers resigned between January and September when compared to the 1,538 who resigned over a similar period in 2022.
With just one week before the start of the 2023-24 academic year, that number jumped to 854 as many of the country's teachers went off to seek greener pastures.
Salary a pull factor
Teachers have left Jamaica to take up jobs in Canada, North America, and the United Kingdom. Many have also journeyed to the other side of the world to teach English in Japan.
Dr Russell further pointed out that the salaries attached to these posts is one of the main pull factors which attracts our local teachers.
“If we are serious about returning the prestige of the profession ... we also need to ensure that they get paid properly. There are other incentives to give to teachers to ensure that they feel valued.”
The deputy opposition spokesperson went on to state that the yearly teacher migration can be coupled with the ongoing violence in schools.
“We have a problem, and that problem is not divorced from the issues we see in school, the management of schools and the disciplinary issues. It is a part of it.
“We have a problem because if I am recruiting, I am not coming to take your third- or fourth-year teachers, mi a come for the resilient ones. I am coming for the best of what you've got. If we don't have a strategy, then anybody can come and take who dem want. That is not acceptable. That's not good for our system.”
While pointing to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) revelation that there is a global need for an additional 44 million teachers to fill the gap in primary and secondary education by 2030, Dr Russell said that Jamaica should at least try capitalising on this market.
He said that utilising the nation's “resilient teachers”, those who have been in the education sector for over 15 years, would be a great start.
“This brain drain is not about to end, but I see in that the opportunity to say how many of those [teachers] can we train. How many of those can we use our resilient teachers to train to see how we can bridge that gap.”