Letter of the Day | Misconceptions about teachers’ salaries
Published:Friday | August 13, 2021 | 12:05 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
There is a misconception that the teachers are being paid for the summer months for not working, and therefore they are obligated to the beckoning of the Ministry of Education at any time.
Second, most schools break for the summer during the first week of July, while teachers work assiduously for another two weeks to mark test papers and complete of report cards. After that, they are often summoned for staff meetings in the middle of August in preparation for the new school year.
What the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, Ministry of Education, and even our teachers have forgotten is that teachers are compensated for only 10 months – September to June. It is this 10-month salary that was divided into 12 to offset the financial struggles that teachers encounter waiting for the start of the new school year. I first learnt this fact as a teacher in training at Church Teachers’ College, Mandeville. As such, teachers are doing extra uncompensated work as volunteers after students depart for their summer break.
In the United States, teachers may request to either receive their full salary within the 10 months period or 12; some school districts are now opting out of managing the 12-month payments by shifting that responsibility to the teachers and the institutions that employed them.
Let us therefore respect our teachers whose salaries have been constantly devalued by high inflation, extra work and overcrowded classrooms; and to whom we still expect to embody the spirit of volunteerism.
DUDLEY MCLEAN II
Mandeville, Manchester