The Reverend Shane Hansel, senior teacher at St Catherine High School, is calling for the teaching profession to be rebranded as part of efforts to stem the migration of teachers.

According to Hansel, schools must also be proactive and assess their environments rather than waiting on the Government to craft a teacher retention policy.

“I think that each institution should do a retention climate survey within their institution based on people’s job satisfaction, allow people to be open, to say what they are going through, and so when we do that we can get a team inclusive of classroom teacher, middle management and we seriously look at our institution to say what can we do to retain our teachers,” said Hansel, who was one of several panellists at a two-day forum put on by The University of the West Indies Mona’s School of Education on Tuesday.

In arguing for incentives for experienced teachers, Hansel said the absence of support have driven young teachers away from the profession.

“If we had some incentives, for example, you are going to do your master’s degree and you can get a $100,000, or a scholarship, or a book voucher, so others would see you being there for 25 years and want to come and stay for 25 years but they will want to know what you gained out of it,” added Hansel.

“We need to incentivise experienced teachers…if we had something to say when you spend five years you would be able to get your transportation card, or a 25 per cent discount from Jamaica Public Service Company, who wouldn’t want to stay? We need to have something to encourage persons,” he said further.

But Dr Deon Edwards-Kerr, senior lecturer in the field of measurement and educational research at the School of Education, in responding to the points raised by Hansel and others, said while the issue of salaries and retention is live, Jamaica needs to define who teachers are and their roles.

“The issues we are talking about here are really being experienced across the region. From the perspective of the School of Education my question really is, what is the role of teachers and to understand that I went back to the legislation. I looked at Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and St Lucia. The role of teachers in the legislation and how we have framed who teachers are will determine what support we give them,” Edwards-Kerr stated.

In highlighting Jamaica’s Education Act of 1980 as well as the Jamaica Teaching Council’s (JTC) 2022 Bill, Edwards-Kerr said it was clear from the Education Act that the focus is primarily on registration and discipline of teachers.

“So that in itself begins to tell you something. The Act primarily focuses on the registration and employment of teachers in public institutions, it outlines basic teacher duties like instructions, maintaining order and adherence to school regulations.

“The Act presents a more bureaucratic view of teachers with less emphasis on professional development or setting standards for teaching practice but we have seen a shift in the Teaching Council Bill of 2022 [which makes] the teaching force a professionalised teaching force…and provides a clear path for professional development and career advancement,” argued Edwards-Kerr.

In noting that the role of teachers is not explicit in the Education Act for Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, Edwards-Kerr said St Lucia’s Education Act, which provides a framework for the system including 11 explicit roles for teachers, could be a guide.

“Jamaica needs to define who teachers are and their roles and then the issue of retention changes…This is not an issue that is a school issue; yes, we need our principals to do their part but there is also a structural issue that needs to be addressed,” she declared.

In the meantime Linvern Wright, president of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS) and principal of William Knibb High School, said particular attention must be paid to not just salaries but the conditions of service.

“For me that’s about training and technological facilities teachers have to work with. It is horrible… It is not just physical, it is also the space of school now becoming more hostile to teachers, very, very hostile, I can tell you that, there are things I am hearing as a principal from students that I wouldn’t dream of saying to my teacher,” Wright told the forum.

In calling for support for teachers similar to that provided in schools abroad for children displaying negative behaviours because of adverse childhood experiences he said, “the Ministry of Education needs to find the kind of funding to support the kind of research that is going to help us to take on, in a meaningful way, the kind of challenges we are facing with our children and with educating those children that need the remedial work”.

Hundreds of trained teachers have left Jamaica for classrooms in North America and the United Kingdom in the past two years.