Dear Editor,

It has happened again!

Many teachers have not yet received their April salaries, which became due on the 25th. This is bad, but what is worse is that there are still teachers who have not yet received their March salaries!

So, like any ordinary, sane person, we are left to think: Is this a conspiracy? Is there a plot to frustrate teachers to leave the education system so that the recent discussions of introducing artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom can gain validity? Is there a plot to remove human contact from the classroom to digitise the space? Is there a plot to boost the illiteracy rate in Jamaica rather than decrease it? After all, it has been proven that when people cannot read they accept whatever has been told to them by people who can read, and many have signed away their rights and properties due to their illiteracy.

Are teachers now being sent a message, in a way they cannot ignore, that they are no longer important to this country?

I suspect that by September it will be confirmed that many teachers have received the memo and will take the actions of their parents in the 1950s and 1960s to go build the infrastructure and economy of countries who need them.

Welcome to the future of AI. Soon it might be the other branches of the civil service. I wonder how AI will police the nation or attend to the sick?

But what am I saying? There is no such conspiracy. Teachers are just seasonal au pairs/babysitters. Their time has come to be replaced. Late payment is just the means to send the message.

Natesha Lindsay

lindsay.natesha2@gmail.com