The flight of educators from Jamaican classrooms for greener pastures overseas has also rocked the private school industry, with Jamaica Independent Schools’ Association (JISA) President Dr Andre Dyer theorising that some have fled because of an unwillingness to handle the rigours of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) curriculum.

“The exodus is affecting everyone; let’s just say it’s a struggle trying to find upper school teachers, meaning grade four and above. It’s a big struggle. A lot of teachers, they don’t want anything to do with PEP because, although I will admit that the initiative and the intention of PEP is fantastic for the future building of the nation — there is no doubt about that — but the way it was rolled out and introduced to the teachers wasn’t the most tactful, it scared a lot of people” Dyer told the Jamaica Observer in an interview last week.

According to the JISA president, “The teachers who are leaving are the PEP teachers, the ones who put in the work. They now know what is required of them overseas, they are now enquiry learning specialists, they are going off to another industry overseas that is going to pay them a minimum three times as much and then, who is left here they don’t want to pick up the mantle because it is a lot of stress and very little pay”.

Dyer’s comments come on the heels of a warning earlier this month from the Jamaica Teachers’ Association that the country should brace for an exodus of teachers this year as already more than 400 have left the island to take up lucrative job opportunities in the United States. The JTA said the hundreds who have left so far have done so through three of seven agencies which are actively recruiting Jamaican teachers who are reputed to be among the best.

JISA represents approximately 150 of the just over 600 private schools in the island. There are approximately 38,000 teachers in the education sector, including those in private institutions.

Asked what the movement of the educators translate into for private schools come September and how badly JISA schools have been affected, Dyer said, “I’ve been trying to get two upper-school teachers for the last two months and no bite, and in the principal’s group every morning you see at least three people posting, ‘In need of a grade four or grade five teacher.’ Every morning you wake up you see four, five of those messages.”

Asked if this would affect the quality of PEP grades next year he said, “It wouldn’t affect next year but definitely the year after.”

Asked what internal strategies could be used to fill the gaps left by the outward flow, Dyer said, “Teachers like me can train an in-house teacher, but the risk with that is you have to be able to have somebody that is willing to take up the challenge because if you put somebody in that situation who doesn’t want to do it, as soon as they finish the training they might just run off and get more pay.”

As to what the Ministry of Education could do to stem the situation generally, he said, “I don’t even have an answer because there is so much they can do and so little they can do at the same time. Because, as a nation and a country, teaching is one of the most unappreciated industries, undercompensated; we are the first industry they look to lay blame on when anything goes wrong.

“Hands down, in any other country you go to as a teacher you are paid a minimum double, and in half the cases you are not paying tax. So say, for argument’s sake, a teacher usually takes home $80,000 after tax, whichever other country they go to their salaries are going to double, and there is no tax. Chances are their housing and transportation are paid for and all they have to worry about is food,” Dyer said.

The prospects for leaving, he said, were too attractive to the educators who have been holding strain for a while.

“If they are going to a country like Canada, USA, or Cayman, if they do a good job for four years, more than likely they get residency or something and there is no way they are going to have even half the class size they had in Jamaica. So, all in all, what you are really saying to the teacher is, ‘Come and do half the work for half the stress and we are going to pay you twice or triple as much.’ So who is going to say no to that?” Dyer reasoned.

The JISA president also bemoaned the treatment of Jamaican teachers.

“When you look at how we treat our teachers, blame game, blame game, and we put more kids in your class. In other countries Teachers’ Day is a holiday, you pay less at the supermarket, at the gas stations. Jamaica has none of these things. When I lived in Asia, just going to the airport and showing my identification they said, ‘Oh, you are a teacher,’ and I got to skip the line. In Mexico it’s a public holiday, no school is open. In Jamaica, on Teachers’ Day, we are being asked to attend two workshops and two seminars by the Ministry of Education and when my teachers look at me and say, ‘Do we have to go?’ I say, ‘No, it’s Teachers’ Day, enjoy yourselves,’ Dyer said.

Education Minister Fayval Williams, in commenting on the revelations of the JTA regarding teacher migration has assured that there is no cause for alarm. She explained that teachers leave the system every year for reasons such as retirement, noting also that, in any given year, between five and seven per cent of teachers are on their earned leave, for example, which means that there is always a need for temporary and permanent replacement teachers.

The minister, however, admitted that she was not aware of the specific numbers who are leaving the system due to migration.