DAMION Crawford, Opposition spokesperson on education, vowed on Sunday that the People’s National Party (PNP) would fight to ensure that Jamaica retains its teachers if his party is voted into government in the next general election.

Crawford, who was speaking at the public session of the 86th Annual General Conference of the PNP on Sunday at the National Arena in St Andrew, said the party would ensure it implements a teacher retention plan which would include making it easier for teachers to own a house, a motor vehicle and be more comfortable in classrooms.

“We will also meet with the embassies and our friends from the embassies who want our talent, to help us prepare an investment so that they can get and we can have so that our students are not left without teachers,” said Crawford.

On Monday, Okeefe Saunders, senior teacher at Donald Quarrie High School in St Andrew, who is a representative of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), told the
Jamaica Observer that he is in total agreement with Crawford wanting to implement a teacher retention plan.

According to Saunders, Jamaica’s education system is already in a dark state and the current level of teacher migration threatens to plunge it even further into darkness.

“The mass migration of our teachers comes from economic factors for example, teachers not earning $220,000 after tax. The only teacher who carries home that is the teacher with a special responsibility. A teacher who just left college is carrying home the same amount of money as some senior teachers who contribute 30 years unbroken service to education.

“We have an economic problem why teachers are migrating to greener pastures. What the Government needs to do to keep our teachers is to give the teachers some benefits,” said Saunders.

He argued teachers have to go abroad to be able to save at least US$500 per month to buy a house.

“I am saying to the Government along with the National Housing Trust give the teachers 100 per cent financing to buy a house on the open market. That will keep the teachers. As long as people have somewhere to live that is their own, that will keep them here. I am also saying that our labour force is very large. It is 25,000 strong or more. It would cost the Government billions of dollars to give all teachers motor vehicle concessions.

“I am advising the Government to give the senior teachers the full 20 per cent [duty] concession and then there are thousands of cars on the wharf that people don’t claim. Government auctions them out and the used car dealers buy them and sell them back for an arm and a leg. I am saying, the Government can give the teachers some of those cars at a reasonable price,” said Saunders.

He added: “At the least, two of teachers’ children must get full scholarship at any tertiary institution. Subsidise the school canteens. For example, Mother’s, Tastee and Juici are taking over the school canteens. I am saying, they have to pay rent for those buildings. The Government owns the building. Those moneys that come in can be used to subsidise the school canteen so that teachers can get a more reasonable lunch from the canteen.

“Buying lunch as a teacher, it costs $800 to $1,000. When you subsidise, a teacher can pay less. When you check up lunch, for the week it can cost you $10,000. Remember now, you have to give your children lunch money. You have to buy gas, pay bus fare and all of those things,” Saunders pointed out as he argued that the Government should give teachers a liveable wage along with the benefits to keep them.

He accused the Ministry of Education of being a big part of the problem. According to Saunders, teachers have to be doing excess administrative work and are not being paid for it.

“When they should get youth workers and all of those people to do administrative work, teachers have to be doing it,” he said.

Saunders argued there are people in the education ministry who have no clue about how the education system should be run as they have no experience in the classroom.

“Nurses watch over nurses and doctors watch over nurses, but anybody who comes with a PhD and say it is in education, can work in the Ministry of Education. Someone who has never sat in a classroom with a child is watching over us and messing up the education system. You cannot be watching over someone and you don’t have any experience in the classroom.

“They are one of the problems along with some principals. There are good principals and bad principals but who feels it knows it. Principals do not promote you according to your work. Principals promote you according to friend thing, cronyism, and nepotism. When you are a firm teacher and they can’t manipulate you, no matter how well you perform in the school, they don’t promote you,” said Saunders.