Dear Editor,

In these tempestuous times in the teaching profession, the race is now on to protect the teachers from losing their multiple privileges. In decades gone by the traditional teacher had to deal with going to college to get the certification and upgrade his/her status in order to stand a chance of remaining current with educational trends and issues.

During this time, the teachers were often given the shotgun treatment whenever the literacy and numeracy grades were below standard and GSAT results in some regions were less than desirable. In addition, under-resourced teachers had to compete in the race by strategising various approaches to improve the results, though many of the students have serious learning disabilities. Annually, in August, chastisement would always come from various consultants of the education ministry questioning the qualifications of the teachers of CXC and CAPE subjects when the results were undesirable, charging that teachers were not qualifying and adapting themselves to the technological and content changes. So, again, some of the teachers went racing to universities; whether it be full-time or part-time to compete in the race of approval from the ministry.

Since the last decade, teachers who ran the retirement race had to do the necessaries to get their full pension, for many of their colleagues before them had died in wait of receiving their just deserved lump-sum. Since then, many of them learned how to manage their stress and planned how they would survive without collapsing before a packed class of less-than-compliant children.

Right behind that was another race that is now delayed, ie for the teachers to be licensed based on their certification and qualification. That gave the now very exhausted teachers little time to catch a breather, since they were now shot into the martial area once again because they had to find alternative means of studying. In some corners people are saying that if a teacher cannot recover quickly from illnesses, then the “work horse” ought to be sent to the ‘knackers’ yard. Also, there is talk that the annual increment that was awarded to teachers to offset the increasing cost of living will be removed. This is a race without a track judge and officials, but only the starter who cannot be at the finish line at the same time.

Is there a real finish line in sight? Are there forces that want to have teachers collapse like the horse called Royal Dad in the late 1970s? If proper dialogue is not engaged, then Jamaica will once again be facing a situation like that of the 1980s where many of our qualified teachers may travel to a less hostile environment and pre-trained teachers will once again inundate the classrooms. Jamaica does not need an exodus; it will not run well with our students. However, if there are no positive and civil changes, then teachers will have to find profitable alternatives to win the race of survival.

Lyssette Hawthorne-Wilson

lysdave@yahoo.com