Jaevion Nelson | Teachers don’t leave because of money

Every year, close to the reopening of schools, we are inundated with countless news reports about the vast number of educators who leave the island to take up more lucrative teaching opportunities elsewhere. Consequently, the news cycle and reports have become awfully predictable and laden with sameness – teachers leaving in droves, shortage of teachers for maths and science, teachers needing more pay, and minister proposing this and that.

We seem to have been having this problem for several decades. I saw The Gleaner tweet a screenshot of a story long before I was born with basically with same alarm. Journalists, like many of us, must be bored stiff by now. Sadly, at the end of the day, there is hardly a sustainable resolution.

I notice that the vast majority of us, despite national discussions on this topic, centre the issue around money, as if that is the only thing our educators have been complaining about all these years.

To constantly suggest pay as THE issue is simply wllful ignorance. Our educators are unduly stressed and one doesn’t need a rigorous scientific study to prove this. Walk into any of our secondary schools – the ones that aren’t among the top 10 performers by CSEC passes, and the stress they undergo daily will greet you at the gate.

One of my friends who is an educator at the prime minister’s alma mater, St Catherine High, shared with me that among the main challenges they face are: low wages, poor working conditions, limited resources – especially as it relates to integrating technology in the curriculum – high student-teacher ratio, and heavy workload. My friend is required to teach 14 classes from grade seven to nine and grades 13 each week. Each class has around 40 students, which means they engage more than 400 students directly each week. My friend loves teaching and wants to contribute to building a more prosperous economy but would welcome an opportunity to work elsewhere with better pay and systems for learning to take place.

Working conditions

According to Ricardo, an educator who left his job in the public education system, “Teachers leave the classroom for more salary in better working conditions. I did because I was being tasked with extra tasks and still expected to produce academically.”

The shortage of teachers in our public schools won’t be solved by simply paying educators more. We can’t throw money at our problems and expect them to be addressed adequately. Quite frankly, such an approach is imprudent. There will always be a more lucrative opportunity elsewhere in education or another sector. The discussion must, therefore, move past the myopic focus on pay and consider all the factors that might influence an educator’s decision to leave our public classrooms.

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT

As Yolande Levy said to me recently, “For many of our institutions, pay is not the only factor. For true teachers, pay was never why they went in to begin with. It’s a lot to do with the management of the institutions. But that’s not a discussion the JTA is willing to have.

“It’s hard when you as a teacher ah struggle fi mek ends meet and di people who supposed to be helping you, trying to make things better – they’re actually making it worse. There are some real horror stories out there and some of the worst come from the brand-name institutions.”

More money won’t keep teachers in our classrooms if we fail to address the plethora of challenges they face in public schools. It is a well-known fact that you need more than a good salary to retain talent. I hope the Government will move with alacrity to address this long-standing issue.

Jaevion Nelson is a human rights, social and economic justice advocate. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and jaevion@gmail.com or tweet @jaevionn.