Orville Taylor | Don’t push teachers to the brink

True, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on his way out, the Russia/Ukraine war is on in earnest, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated and we have monkeypox here. However, we have urgent domestic fish to fry, because there is potentially a major crisis in education, which we have to fix in a hurry. Since the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic some 15 teachers have suddenly passed on from might appear to be ‘natural causes’. However, there is nothing natural about the level of stress that members of this profession have had to face in the last two years.

Former president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), Paul Adams, came out firebranding last week, hopping mad, accusing the Government of unfairly and illegally denying teachers their hard-earned vacation leave. This in the wake of a call from outgoing president Winston Smith for an investigation to determine the last date on which the deceased were on leave. Excellent point and I recommend this approach for all public sector workers, especially those on the hate line, such as healthcare workers and police, among others.

Without question, during the two years that children, especially those from early childhood to secondary, were missing from the classrooms, teachers may have had some kind of hiatus. However, for those teachers who continued teaching using modalities they were unfamiliar with or untrained for, it would have been one of the most stressful periods of their entire careers. Indeed, the teachers in the last quarter of their careers would have been especially vulnerable, because being educated under old-school rules, much of the modern technology involving online and remote teaching would not have been part of their training. Thus for many of these surrogate parents, it was a case of been given baskets to carry water.

From a strict labour law/industrial relations perspective, every single teacher who was forced to take on a modality that was outside of the original contractual arrangements found herself or himself working under breached contracts of employment.

Let me make it absolutely clear, that unless there is an explicit or implicit provision in a person’s contract that empowers the employer to radically change the conditions or terms under which they work, then much of that would be considered repudiatory. Yet, teachers continued to work, using methodologies and techniques that they could not possibly master in such a short time.

OLD ADAGE

There is an old adage about dogs and tricks, and many teachers have their ‘navel string’ cut and buried under an old-style tree. Try as you may, I am willing to bet that scores of teachers struggled with online teaching and are happy to be back face-to-face.

Personally, digital teaching was as uncomfortable as a digital prostate examination, but the struggle and sacrifice for my very understanding adult students were worth it. It would have been even harder for those who teach students who are still in the pool into which the gangs and murderers dip for membership.

Outside of the COVID-19 conditions, Adams purports that some teachers have gone some up to 15 years without taking a vacation. To a cursory observer, any statistically significant increases in mortality of in-service teachers could be seen as correlated to the additional stress brought on by the vagaries of COVID-19 and its aftermath. Given that the Government is now imposing a mandatory seven-year high school career, and the incontrovertible literature regarding working hours, stress and lifestyle diseases and mortality, there can be no question that in its present form a regimen which only allows five per cent of a school population to be on leave each year is dysfunctional and dangerous. Never mind the cliché of the customers’ (children’s) interests being paramount; that is rubbish! Fragile teachers are more dangerous to the very students themselves. Therefore, they should not be pushed to the brink, lest they crack and crumble.

SUMMER BREAKS

But wait a bit! Do not teachers have long summer breaks, especially those who are not administrators? Are there expectations of work to be produced or tasks to be performed between July and September? If teachers are free during these months, it might be justifiably argued that they do get some approximation of vacation as well.

Under our Holiday with Pay Order (HWPO) 1973 the term ‘worker’ “…does not include … any person employed by the Government”. Hence, public sector teachers are not covered under the statute. Adams and others understand the Education Act which applies to “‘public educational institutions’ … maintained by the minister.”

A caution to the myriad institutions which are not. These include the private colleges and universities, whose teachers are not explicitly sent on vacation during the summer or other holiday break. In fact, all such entities are covered under the HWPO, and their workers are entitled to vacation leave along the same lines as if they are workers in any regular business. Such bodies must now pay full attention; because workers who are expected to work and produce and are penalised for summer inactivity may justifiably be termed to be as violated as the government teachers.

And by the way, if you can truly read and understand the subtleties of this column, thank your teacher.

- Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.