There was a news item sometime last week about the number of mathematics teachers who migrated over the past year. Actually, this has always been a problem for two reasons. First, Jamaica will never be able to pay teachers what they are paid in North America and England. Second, there are all sorts of incentives available in certain First-World countries to attract teachers. Those that make the incentives available couldn’t care less about the needs of a Third-World country, and there is nothing we can do about that.

At the same time, there is also nothing that we can do about people deciding to migrate. Island dwellers the world over tend to migrate at a higher rate than those in other countries that are parts of continents. There will always be people living on an island like Jamaica who say that the island is simply too small for them, and that they need to explore the world, no matter what incentives they are given. This does not mean that we should simply give up trying, and in any case, we can find opportunities and incentives of our own.

One incentive to keep our teachers here could be a co-operative solution, so it will not necessarily mean any further spending from the national coffers. I have written often about the need for a co-operative hotel. It is not a novel idea because there are co-operative hotels in other parts of the world.

Just two weeks ago I wrote that if we asked the Roman Catholic bishops in Jamaica to expand the pilgrimages, the pilgrims from abroad would need accommodation. It could initially be a bed-and-breakfast arrangement, but the proposed co-operative would provide the services in maintenance and in other areas. Eventually the proposed co-operative set up for this purpose could own a hotel of its own that takes in tourists in general.

One of the services could be to teach the children of the tourists, whether they are pilgrims or missionaries of one church or another, or are the children of any tourist for that matter. This would bring some much-needed foreign exchange into Jamaica.

In many of the big hotels in Jamaica, children come from abroad with their parents, even during school time. Many times the parents do not bring their children as, of course, they do not want to take them out of school during the school terms. But the tourists could be encouraged to bring their children here because there would be teachers who would give them extra lessons while they are on holiday, so that they would not be too far behind when they return to school.

Eventually the teachers could work out a programme where the students in our schools still come to school for five days as they presently do, but the teachers come for four days so that they could work in a hotel, whether it is a co-operative or as part-time employees of the other hotels.

How would this be done? All high school teachers have free periods. The teachers could organise their timetable so that they all have their free periods on one day. So some would work from Mondays to Thursdays, others work from Tuesdays to Fridays while others Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

And in the primary schools, where each class has only one teacher, one day the students could have substitute teachers so that they still get five days of school. This could be another incentive to keep our mathematics teachers along with others.

We know that teachers already get incentives in terms of owning houses and cars, but clearly that is not enough, especially with the USA 500 miles away dangling the ‘carrot’ of a higher standard of living there. And this is where the nurses would come in also.

There are always tourists in our hotels that are sent to Jamaica to recuperate, or simply to get some fresh Jamaican air. Unfortunately, this might not be available in the western and central parts of Jamaica if the Government goes ahead with the coal-generated electricity plant at Nain, St Elizabeth. This would be more so if the smog gets to the north coast and beyond by the wind which normally comes from the south. And, by the way, modern coal energy only disguises the smog, but it is just as cancerous.

But as long as sick people come here as tourists they will need nurses, so a similar workweek could be worked out with the nurses. And this is why the nurses’ association should join all the efforts to stop the Government from going the route of coal energy because that alone might be a turn-off to foreign tourists.

Such a hotel would include all workers who are needed in the tourism industry. But it is important that all workers join one of the island’s credit unions and go to annual general meetings. The surplus (called ‘profit’ in other types of businesses) — if one is made — is distributed according to the vote of the meeting, as credit unions are owned by their members and is up to now entirely democratic. If the island’s 30-odd credit unions gave the proposed hotel co-operative $6 million every year for five years, and the accumulated $30 million, plus interest, is realised, then that would be enough to at least build a small hotel where such services are offered.

There will be many questions about this idea. But if co-operative education had been continued by the credit unions, then there would not be so many questions as my idea would be understood. When the credit union movement was started in Jamaica by the Roman Catholic Church, co-operative education was compulsory after the application to join was made. Today, the movement is no longer Roman Catholic-oriented. In my opinion, some people who have been elected to serve on the boards of credit unions have deliberately downplayed co-operative education because they do not want the members to attend annual general meetings to vote them out.

Could the migration of mathematics teachers be the launching pad of a co-operative hotel? I hope it is, because I have been looking for a way to get it started for nearly three decades.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com