FALMOUTH, Trelawny — As the new academic year beckons, Muschett High School in Wakefield, Trelawny, is scampering to fill vacancies for nine teachers.

In recent weeks there have been reports of teachers leaving the classrooms to take up jobs overseas.

Minister of Education Fayval Williams announced recently that 167 teachers have resigned while newly minted president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), La Sonja Harrison claims that a recent survey has indicated that nearly 600 teachers will not be returning to the classroom come September.

She, however, did not mention which survey.

“A recent survey suggests that of 140 schools (all levels) across the seven regions, close to 600 teachers will not be present for the September reopening,” Harrison remarked.

Principal of Muschett High School, Leighton Johnson told the Jamaica Observer that while aspects of the preparations for the start of the academic year are on track, filling the vacant positions for the nine teachers is proving to be very challenging.

“The major challenge that we are having at this point is the fact that we still have some vacancies to be filled. That is where we are. We have filled more than 50 per cent of our vacancies at this point [but] there are still some vacancies to be filled, and that is causing…a little anxiety,” said Johnson.

“We were able to restructure our timetable to ensure that we were able to respond to the chronic issue of not being able to find teachers for the technical areas. So, we were able to do some revamping of our timetable for one technical area, to be specific, but we’re still out an electrical installation teacher. We’ve done interviews, however persons have not really grabbed hold of the offer, so that’s where we are.”

The Muschett High principal added that interviews would have been conducted on Monday as the school continues relentlessly in its search to bridge the shortage of teachers at the institution.

“I do have interviews scheduled for this [yesterday] morning so let us see, as best as possible from the cadre of persons who we have invited for interviews, let’s see how best they are able to suit the needs of the Muschett High School,” he said.

“We were at eight the last count; I think I saw another resignation this [yesterday] morning so that would have made it nine.”

Johnson further noted that the school is making do with infrastructure.

“In terms of infrastructure, we are working with what we have as usual and moving forward so the major issue that we see confronting us at this time is that there are still vacancies to be filled,” he said.

In the meantime, principal of the Granville Primary School in Trelawny, Ivanhoe Gordon is bemoaning that the school is now busy scrambling to replace termite-infested desks in time for the new academic year.

“I have a number of desks that are eaten out by ‘chi chi’; I don’t know if the children can sit on them come September. We want to get some replacements. We did a submission to the regional office [of the Ministry of Education] so I am waiting to see what comes out,” Gordon shared.

“We had summer school, and when we went there last week when the man came to administer termite treatment, a number of desks were there beyond repair. They [termites] turn the wood into a kind of mesh; everything ‘powder-out’ [turned to dust]. We leave them good and when we come back the students can’t sit on them because chi chi pummel dem out. That’s the main problem.”

However, Nicola Ottie Anderson, principal of Waldensia Primary and Infant School in Sherwood Content, also in Trelawny, said she is not anticipating any challenges for the new academic year. She explained that they are now in the process of putting on the finishing touches to their preparations.

“I have furniture; I got some from last year. I have all of my teachers in place — none have resigned, none of them has migrated. I think that I will be okay,” Ottie Anderson said.