Teachers’ colleges facing crisis of interest

WESTERN BUREAU:

Dr Garth Anderson, dean of the Teachers’ Colleges of Jamaica (TCJ), says candidates are no longer embracing the teaching profession the way they once did due to the financial limitations which do not allow educators to afford a comfortable lifestyle.

Anderson, who is also the principal of Church Teachers’ College, which is based in Mandeville, Manchester, said the island’s teacher training colleges are suffering from a lack of applicants because of the cost to pursue studies and the less than adequate remuneration when an individual enters the classroom as a teacher.

“We are still suffering from a low take of candidates for the teaching profession and we are working collaboratively as the Teachers’ Colleges of Jamaica to see how we can resolve this issue,” said Anderson, who further noted that work is being done in trying to get the Ministry of Education and Youth to give some scholarships in STEM – science technology engineering and mathematics, and STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

“It is also my considered view that we have to go back to when teacher training was sponsored by the Government at, where at least 90 per cent of the costs were covered by the state and students had minimum tuition to pay,” said Anderson, who noted that students are now required to pay their full tuition cost.

“We have to go back to the system of supporting financially and otherwise so we can attract the right persons into the profession and to ensure that tuition is not a deterrent for persons who want to come ... ,” said Anderson.

UNATTRACTIVE NATURE

Anderson also noted that the unattractive nature of teaching is among several factors driving away people with an interest in the profession.

“One of them is that the teaching profession is not as attractive to a number of our young people leaving high schools. They see how stressful their teachers are, they don’t want to be part of that. And they are hearing the complaints that teachers are not able to fully take care of their bills and to live a wholesome life, so they tell you they don’t want to be a part of that,” Anderson told The Gleaner.

“Our salaries, despite the compensation review, are not competitive, even within the region. If you go to The Bahamas, for example, a teacher entering the profession is getting anywhere between US$23,000-US$25,000 per year. It is the same thing in the Turks and Caicos Islands,” noted Anderson, who is a past president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA). “In the Bahamas, they had to put a retention bonus to hold teachers who wanted to go to North America and, in Jamaica, we are about US$19,000.”

Now a trustee of the JTA, Anderson is hoping that as part of the new wage negotiations cycle for salaries and fringe benefits, an attractive agreement can be reached to help lure young people back to the teaching profession.

“So, in the negotiating period coming up, we now would have to look, with the Government, how we can make remuneration competitive. We are not able to match them (The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands) but to see how close we can come to that,” said Anderson.

Outside of those hurdles, Anderson pointed to the much-heralded Sixth-Form Pathways or seven-year high school programme that was launched in September 2020, as an impediment to teacher training colleges, arguing that since then, high schools are holding on to their students.

The Sixth-Form Pathways programme allows students to graduate from secondary school with one or more of the following – an occupational associate degree, certificate or a diploma (within an occupational discipline), or an accredited Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica (CCCJ) or University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) associate degree.

Anderson further noted that, while teachers’ colleges are in full support of the Sixth-Form Pathways programme, it is laced with problems for the colleges.

“This is something we support in the teacher training sector, we have no problem with the programme supporting our children to further their education, and those who didn’t do well can get a second chance at it, and those who have done well can continue to build on what they have learned. However, how the programme is set up, it is so set up that we would have to work with the high schools to get students to come into college,” revealed Anderson.

Given that logistical nightmare, he is calling for a review of the programme.

“It just does not make sense. And it is no secret that my principal colleagues at the secondary level are encouraging students to remain with them, so the students are not coming to us anymore. They are staying there because there is a certain amount of money that comes with them and principals need the money to run their schools,” Anderson lamented.

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