Some teachers have resigned to take up jobs at other schools, says minister
DESPITE several reports that teachers are leaving local classrooms in droves to take up teaching jobs overseas, Education and Youth Minister Fayval Williams says some teachers who have resigned have simply shifted to other local teaching roles.
“We are seeing where teachers have resigned and they have taken up positions in other teaching posts within the [education] system in Jamaica,” the minister said a statement in Parliament Tuesday.
She pointed out, for example, that in Region Two – which comprises St Thomas, Portland and St Mary – 14 teachers who have resigned have taken up teaching positions within the region at other schools.
“Similarly in Region Three – St Ann, Trelawny – 10 teachers resigned and they have taken up other teaching posts also within the region,” she said.
She explained that this is so as the Education Act and regulations do not allow teachers to move from school to school on their own volition. “They have to generally resign from one school and then go to the other school, and go through that process there,” she said.
Minister Williams argued that the issue of teacher resignations has “a number of moving parts to it” and that the precise figure will not be known until the ministry carries out its next survey across the system, which is generally done in October.
“So the numbers reported… might be gross numbers rather than net numbers because there are some resignations of teachers moving around within the [local] education system in Jamaica,” she said.
In addressing the resignation issue at a press conference last week, Minister Williams said the ministry was seeking to launch a platform to allow persons looking for jobs in the teaching profession to upload their resumes so schools will be more efficiently assisted in their efforts to recruit teachers.
She said a bulletin was also sent to school board chairs and principals outlining several strategies for teacher recruitment.
It was also recently announced that schools now have the approval of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to re-hire teachers who are on long leave of four months or eight months to fill vacancies, depending on schools’ needs.
“The details of this latest strategy are being shared with our principals…We have been speaking with our principals who are interested, and ensuring that they understand the details of that,” Williams said.
For the period July 22 to September 5, 2022 there have been 253 teacher resignations.
