On the cusp of the new academic year, there are serious concerns being raised about the state of the education system. What makes it even more interesting is that return to classes has been preceded by the annual Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) conference and the release of Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) results. These two critical activities help to give a broader perspective of the state of affairs in one of the nation’s most important sectors.

At the JTA conference, a number of issues were raised, including the Government’s decision to recruit overseas teachers to fill vacancies locally and the lawsuit brought against the association by one of its former presidents, La Sonja Harrison. This latter matter led to a war of words between immediate past president Leighton Johnson and president-elect for 2025/2026 Mark Malabver, prompting the association to exclude the media from the discussions.

On the former matter of international teacher recruitment, the JTA has accused the Ministry of Education and Youth of a lack of consultation and engagement on the matter. Johnson said that the ministry has often taken that approach — doing things independently of the JTA. But as a senior official in the education ministry stated in Monday’s edition of
The Gleaner, “If the ministry had consulted with them, the JTA would be the first to bash it.”

The unnamed senior official also accused the JTA of supporting unbecoming behaviour of teachers, while the source equally chided teachers for indecent and unprofessional conduct: “If you ever see and know the rubbish that the teachers do, and their association backs them, it is a crying shame. Simple thing. They are required to give three months’ notice of resignation. They leave with scores of grades for children. They leave without completing other administrative functions. When some of the principals withhold the salaries, [although it should not be done], they go to their association, and it backs them in wrongdoing.”

Some teachers’ conduct has caused some students to lose scholarships and other incentives as teachers leave without submitting final grades.

There is a clear and constant tug of war between the JTA and the Government. The senior official has called on the portfolio minister, Fayval Williams, to speak up and be brave about inappropriate behaviour she has observed coming from the JTA and some of the nation’s educators.

President of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, Livern Wright, has pointed out a critical issue: The Government and the JTA have not done enough for the conditions of teachers.

“JTA is supposed to talk about conditions of service. I do not feel that JTA has done a good job of negotiating conditions of service. Conditions of service cannot be a one-off session about what the code is. The JTA has to help people to assess better with respect to reliability and validity,” he argued.

While there are legitimate concerns about teacher importation, there are many who present the situation as though it is the first time we would be having foreign teachers. But we have for decades had teachers from Cuba, Dominican Republic, India, Ghana, and Nigeria, among other nationalities. Isn’t it also ironic, hypocritical even, that our tertiary system prepares teachers for an international market, but we scoff at the idea of having international teachers in our system? Besides, there is a melting pot of nationalities that teaches within our higher education institutions.

Newly installed president of the JTA Dr Mark Smith seemed to have received a recent revelation, stating that if teachers are paid more, fewer of them would opt to migrate. But to date, there has not been any serious, calculated proposal on what constitutes a liveable salary. Undoubtedly, he will have a heavy task to execute when the JTA and the Government enter the next negotiation cycle.

However, often missing from the conversation is the fact that teachers also leave because heads of department and school administration give them a difficult time at work. Leadership and management of our schools cannot be dismissed from the conversation.

Additionally, I maintain that once there is a demand for teachers, people will continue to take up offers overseas. If there were no vacancies overseas, would our people be leaving? The Government certainly will have to improve working conditions and compensation, but we must not pretend as though they will be able to match the packages in these developed countries.

On the matter of CXC passes, regional passes seem very low in mathematics and English language this year at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level. While the public awaits the granular breakdown of the passes, Jamaica still remains the largest Anglophone Caribbean island; therefore, we are positive that many of our students did not do well.

Are we going to talk about these issues every year? What are we going to do to address the high level of illiteracy among our students? Then again, the results should not shock us too gravely, as many of these students are the COVID-19 babies who have now reached the end of their five-year high school cycle.

Undoubtedly, those of us in higher education will continue to observe the gaps in these students. We have to brace for it, as we have been doing all these years.

Modern languages, especially French, have suffered a significant blow this year. Many of my colleagues are left concerned as to what might have gone wrong in the exams. Students who have performed well throughout the CSEC years ended up failing the exam horribly. Did they not apply themselves well? Were they marked severely? The concerns are legitimate because a student bagging seven ones and obtaining a grade give in French suggests some discrepancies. Nevertheless, we await a thorough post-mortem.

One of the concerns, too, is that students might have dedicated a lot more time to school-based assessment (SBA) subjects and neglected the language(s). Still, it is worth highlighting that whatever students produce in their foreign language exam is largely their own work. The same cannot be said about SBA subjects, as many students seek external help or pay someone to complete their SBAs for them.

Evidently, there is a lot to digest as we enter a new academic year, even as many schools are still being refurbished due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl. Nevertheless, it is a time for all stakeholders to be mindful of the realities and unite for the betterment of our education system.

maddenoniel@yahoo.com