Educator concerned about slighting of history, RE, social studies at teachers’ colleges

WESTERN BUREAU:

Dr Garth Anderson, the dean of the Teachers’ Colleges of Jamaica (TCJ), is bemoaning the fact that the nation’s teachers’ colleges are not preparing students to teach social studies, history, and religious education, which he sees as courses that are essential to the national growth.

In fact, the noted educator sees the situation as a looming crisis at a time when the nation is having difficulty hiring talented teachers because of the low salaries, shortfalls in resources and the lure of more lucrative overseas teaching jobs.

“We are not training enough teachers in social studies, history, and religious education and, for years, we have not graduated anybody in these fields,” said Anderson, who also serves as the principal of Church Teachers’ College in Mandeville, Manchester.

Anderson said he was very concerned that prospective teachers are shunning these subjects in Jamaica’s eight teacher-training institutions and fears that, going forward, the situation will become increasingly dire unless a way is found to reverse the trend.

“We had a limited number of people coming in for Spanish and geography, and these are critical subjects necessary for national development,” said Anderson, as he lamented what appears to be a global teacher crisis.

Ricardo Bennett, the principal of Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College, which is based in St James, said that, at that institution, candidates are not allowed to major in geography and social studies at the secondary level.

“We don’t train persons who major at the secondary level in geography or social studies,” Bennett told The Gleaner. “What we have is that, in our primary education programme, we have two pathways – those students who will specialise in mathematics and science as part of the primary education programme – and we also have those who will major in language and social studies.

“So that is their area of specialisation, and when they are trained, they go in the system, so now they see a specialist in the primary schools in these areas.”

In looking at the situation impacting education in Jamaica, Reverend Davewin Thomas, chairman of the St James Minister’s Fraternal, said he has serious apprehension about the enrolment of applicants in teacher-training institutions, who are not pursuing studies in history and geography, considering their importance in developing well-rounded students.

“If we don’t pay attention to these, then maybe we could be re-colonised because, when we lack that knowledge, we are subject to the world’s follies,” said Thomas, who is concerned that after 62 years of independence, the nation is still not prepared to shed its colonial baggage.

Albert Ferguson