Dear Editor,

My friends and I have given more than 50 years each to teaching, at all levels, in Jamaica, and we are disturbed at the upheavals in the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), in which some of us still hold membership.

We must first congratulate the many young teachers who have gone on to do doctoral degrees, however, it is just a pity that this week’s Ministry of Education report shows negative growth in the sector.

When we went to elementary school, blackboards separated many classes, everybody could read and there were inspectors who would visit and pick out children, at random, for evaluation. Now with all the degrees, specialists, and consultants, our children are leaving school without being able to read. The latest negative statistics and reports should be JTA’s sole business at this time.

Senior teachers, like myself, who come from the old school, when grammar was taught and when teachers were respected and were themselves respectful of authority, are hopping mad (if we’re still vertical) to hear some JTA officials speak English.

We are also saddened to watch their antics and rabble-rousing tactics on television. Fresh in our minds is the ‘mongrel dog’ episode, the loud cheers of some teachers, and the victory votes given to the main offender. This cannot be right, even when staged in grand hotels. The missing word, in this instance, could be discretion.

We’ve lost our dignity, one veteran with 60 years of service to education said and we all agree. In our corner, we feel JTA should be working closely with the ministry and not appear to be ready to attack and contradict and ‘trace’.

School will be reopened in a couple of days and there is no JTA president to preside over anything because we know it could take a number of years before this court matter could be heard before being settled. Some of us may not live to see the results.

May we remind the JTA of the pioneers, mostly Mico men who, in their 20s, built a safe education system for this country. Let us remember Albert Samuel Clarke, founded St John’s College in 1911; Roderick J Blake, Tutorial College, 1926. Look at the example set by the late Governor General Sir Howard Cooke and take note of the contribution of the recently retired Dr Claude Packer.

Mills Blake

St Andrew