PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Winston Smith is calling on the Government to develop and put its weight behind a national project to enhance education, including significantly better remuneration for teachers, and an overhaul of the old, inadequate school plants.

Smith argued that improved facilities are critical, but that it is even more important that teachers finally receive the regard and compensation they deserve, or the country will continue to see its best educators leaving in droves for much better opportunities.

He said teachers are fully on board with the need for accountability, but this must be reciprocated with salary packages that can improve their standard of living and unlock access to opportunities.

Smith argued that compensation and the conditions and capacity of the physical plants are all part and parcel of a grading and numbers system for primary and secondary schools that have outlived their time.

Emphasising the need for wage levels that would incentivise teachers to stay, he pointed out that a teacher with a bachelor’s degree earning $142,000 before tax, can at the same grade level take home upwards of US$4,200 monthly, with better conditions and a higher standard of living.

“These are real salaries I’m talking about,” Smith stressed.

According to the JTA president, many male teachers are leaving the profession because the salaries don’t allow them to start, and provide for, their families sufficiently. He said this creates a deficit of male role models for students in the education system.

According to Smith, there is direct correlation between the grading system that is in place in relation to the population that each school was built to accommodate and staffing and salaries.

“Within the school system you have six grades, and based on the number of students in the school, a school that was built as a grade one, for example, over time becomes overpopulated.”

He noted that all the resources for schools are determined by the number of students, including the number of teachers, vice-principals, whether or not there is a guidance counsellor, the numbers of senior teachers and how much the school receives in subvention on a per head basis.“The numbers even determine how much the principal is paid. Everything is number based. That has served its purpose at times but now we need to get beyond that,” said Smith. “A grade one principal gets little or nothing. As a matter of fact, if you’re a senior teacher three at a primary or high school and become the principal of a grade one school, you get less pay”.

He said the JTA has been struggling in its negotiations to have this anomaly corrected.

As for the school plants, he said the novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for much better facilities.

“The schools have been designed to accommodate a certain number of students and over time you have movement up and down, so when we talk about space, the students are not evenly distributed. You have schools that are overcrowded and some that are underutilised. The infrastructure has to be more surgical,” said Smith.

He stressed also that in addition to the need for more facilities such as restrooms for some schools, including for teachers, there is a major termite infestation problem eating at many institutions.

Smith said it is hoped that this issue will be dealt with before schools reopen for face-to-face classes.

The JTA president made clear that he was not blaming the present portfolio minister, as successive ministers have come to the sector with good intentions, but that there is a significant funding deficit. “Where they’re doing a good job, I believe in giving credit where credit is due,” stated Smith.