‘Rocky start’
YALLAHS High School in western St Thomas has been staggered by the resignations of six teachers just before the start of the new academic year today.
The resignations, Principal Mark Malabver said, have dealt a significant blow to the school’s literacy and mathematics departments, especially.
“We are trying our best to prepare things, notwithstanding the challenges that we have. We have gotten off to a rocky start particularly because we are just getting resignations of teachers less than a week before the commencement of the new school year. So things are not where we want them to be in respect to teachers,” Malabver shared.
He made the disclosure in an interview with the Jamaica Observer North & East last Wednesday, during a visit to the school, noting that this has been the case for the last three years.
The teachers have resigned to take up jobs overseas or at traditional high schools in the Corporate Area.
“We also have resignations from the Home Economics Department. We’re still struggling to get a teacher for building. We have, however, engaged the ministry [of Education] with the view to get permission from them to engage a teacher who has recently retired from the system, but that is a process that takes a little while to go through the system. So we are struggling with teachers, in terms of getting teachers; getting the best qualified teachers in the system,” he noted.
Malabver pointed out, too, that students placed at Yallahs following the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam are at a disadvantage while the school grapples with the shortage of teachers.
As he puts it, these students fall under Pathway II and Pathway III of the education ministry’s Alternative Pathways to Secondary Education (APSE) programme.
APSE, according to the education ministry, is an initiative that is based on tailored curricula that enable learners to perform at their fullest potential based on aptitude, interest and ability. This initiative has three pathways: Pathway I (SP I), Pathway II (SP II) and Pathway III (SP III).
“Schools like Yallahs, the students that we get are particularly on Pathway II and Pathway III. A lot of our students are on Pathway III of the APSE curriculum and it is a struggle to get teachers suitably qualified to come in and engage them. So it is a serious challenge when they resign without notice,” Malabver said.
“Based on the PEP, students who get the lowest percentage are on Pathway III. Students who are on Pathway II hover in the 35-40 per cent region and above 50 [per cent] is usually Pathway I. So based on the PEP scores that is how they place students.
“It is really a struggle. Right now I need at least three teachers for math; I need two teachers for literacy. Currently, in the Math Department, we have only three teachers. So I’m operating at around 50 per cent for math,” said Malabver, who shared that Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate passes for maths and English at the school last year were 27 per cent and 37 per cent, respectively.
At the same time Malabver, who assumed the role of principal in 2016, chided teachers who he said need to be “more honest” with the system with regards to resignations.
“It is just unacceptable to wait until the end of the school year to send in a resignation to say you’re resigning at the beginning of the school year. It does not give principals enough time to respond to that because recruiting teachers peaks during the summer period and then there is a lull period and then it peaks again and lulls just before September. So, a lot of schools are competing for the same pool of teachers. So when you send in your resignation towards the end, we’re already behind the ball in terms of getting the best or most suitable teacher for your school, given the culture and where you want to get your school.”
