MARTHA BRAE, Trelawny — President of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), Linvern Wright wants to see more focus on addressing the acute shortage of music teachers.

He believes this is just as important as efforts to attract and retain educators who teach STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects .

“We talk about STEM shortage but where Jamaica has a competitive advantage is in music… Our artistes are good, but we have a… shortage of music teachers. And look at the kind of bang for the buck we get with music in Jamaica!” Wright argued.

“I hear very few people talking about the shortage of music teachers. Many schools can’t find that. You look at the quality of music [concern] that people are talking about. So, when you talking about the shortage of teachers you need to look at everything,” he added.

He was speaking with reporters on Tuesday, the day after the official start of the new school year.

Wright also voiced his opposition to singling out teachers of STEM subjects for perks.

“I don’t agree with incentivising [only] some people because every single subject is important. When you start doing that, what you’re going to do when you have a shortage of the others? Are you are going to start incentivising them?” he questioned.

He suggested that all teachers should be treated well, “not just with pay, but with the conditions of the service”.

He spoke of other important factors such as camaraderie with peers in the workplace, as well as how parents and school principals engage with teachers.

“Is it that we’re abusing teachers too much as a country? Is it that we are diminishing our sense of what authority should mean on behalf of a child who’s growing up? Teachers are frustrated with that kind of thing, and if you’re not paying them enough, they’re going to leave,” Wright warned.

The William Knibb Memorial High School principal also pointed out that “the other thing we have to pay attention to is quality”.

“In my school, for example, I’ve lost six out of eight mathematics teachers over the last three years, and I figure that many other schools have the same kind of thing. It affects quality. It’s not even to blame the young teachers who come because they need time. They need time to understand the syllabus, understand the exams, understand how to teach better. It takes time,” he insisted.

“So they’re not going to be where those teachers who have four or five years’ experience were; it’s going to take them some time to catch up. That is one of the issues I think we need to pay attention to,” Wright added.