In this file photo, Cordella Beckford, a sixth grade teacher at Annotto Bay Primary School, teaches her students. Teaching is a rewarding career, and many teachers find comfort in providing their students with the tools they need to succeed. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)
A country’s educational system is the foundation of its social and economic progress. Therefore, it needs to be managed well to give young people a better start so that they can enter the job market with confidence. However, the Jamaican education system is riddled with problems and teachers are usually the ones who are burdened with these many problems.
First, since the start of the school year, there have been reports of students being locked out for not following their school’s grooming policies. However, many school administrations do not practice what they preach. School administrators are adamant that students follow the rules, but many schools do not follow the rules and regulations set by the ministry or the Education Act. School authorities, sometimes, do what they want. It’s like free play throughout the Jamaican education system.
For example, the Education Act states that a temporary appointment of a teacher shall not exceed three terms unless the school council, at the end of the term, has agreed to extend that term. He further explains that after the evaluations, a recommendation must be made by the director to the board. Once the recommendation is for continued appointment, based on the assessment of the teacher’s work and qualifications, subsequent appointment of the teacher should follow.
However, this is definitely not the case. You have many teachers who have been working for five years and more in establishments and who have not yet been appointed permanent. This has an impact on vacations, study leave and finances, as there are financial institutions that do not provide loans to teachers who are not permanently employed. In addition, some teachers are fired or asked to resign without following the process outlined in the Education Act.
Second, the power granted to principals to assign teachers “any other task” must be assessed. Teachers are required to create and execute lesson plans, create and grade assignments, keep records (both as homeroom teachers and subject teachers), serve as club advisors and to carry out any other task entrusted to them by their directors. Where do we draw the line? Some of these additional tasks see teachers working weekends, late nights, working in canteens, etc.
For example, after COVID-19 sent classroom learning online in 2020, grade 11 students were allowed to return to school to prepare for their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exam. A school administration in St Mary’s, during this period, has given its teachers various safety tasks related to COVID-19. These included checking the temperature of students at the school gate, taking lunch orders, and delivering those lunches to students. Teachers had to take on these tasks while engaging students online and face-to-face. This is just one example of the outrageous and ridiculous tasks that school administrations demand of teachers. When will we say enough is enough? There must be some form of limitation on what principals can assign to teachers.
Third, teachers shouldn’t have to wait three months to a year to get their correct salary. To make matters worse, this has been repeatedly pointed out, but neither the Ministry of Education nor the Jamaica Teachers Association has made any effort to resolve it.
Teaching is a rewarding career, and many teachers find comfort in providing their students with the tools they need to succeed. Nevertheless, it remains very demanding and exhausting. Teachers are under pressure from students, parents, department heads, supervisors, school administrators and the Ministry of Education. So much is expected of teachers, but they are given so little compensation. Imagine having so many tasks and at the end of the month having to make do with pre-trained teacher salaries or, in some cases, nothing at all. At one point I had to wait six months to get my correct pay and then another year to get my back pay. I just want to add that my raises are also not forthcoming.
The education system should implement electronic systems that allow teachers to easily enter their information and submit scanned copies of their diplomas. This would save the bursars from having to transport/send the documents to the regional offices and the teachers from not being paid because the documents were not delivered to the ministry on time. It would also eliminate the problem of teachers having to resubmit documents when they leave one school to take up a job in another. Also, I don’t see why it takes so long to assess a teacher’s qualifications to determine where they are on the salary scale. Why can’t the process take two weeks? Does the ministry need more staff? Well, hire them. There are so many educated young Jamaicans who need jobs.
These are just a few of the issues that are confusing our education system and suffocating our teachers. Because of these issues, teachers are unmotivated and some do the bare minimum or flee the classroom. If Jamaica is to realize its full potential for socio-economic growth, its education system must be exceptional. Therefore, solutions must be implemented to fix the many issues plaguing the system.
teddensetkt@gmail.com
(7).JPG)
