Is there a conspiracy to get rid of teachers?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

It has happened again! Many teachers have not yet received their April salaries, which was due on the 25th. This is bad but what is worse is that there are still teachers who have not yet received their March salaries!

So, like any ordinary, sane person, we are left to think: is this a conspiracy? Is there a plot to frustrate teachers to leave the education system so that the recent discussions of introducing AI in the classroom gain validity? Is there a plot to remove human contact from the classroom and make the space robotised? Is there a plot to boost the illiteracy rate in Jamaica rather than decrease it? After all, it has been proven that when people cannot read, they accept whatever have been told to them by persons who can read, and many have signed away their rights and properties because of their illiteracy.

Have teachers now been sent a message, in a way they cannot ignore, that they are no longer important to this country?

I suspect that, by September, it will be confirmed that many teachers have received the memo and will take the actions of their parents of the 1950s and 1960s and go build the infrastructure and economy of countries that need them.

Welcome to the future of artificial intelligence! Soon it may be the other branches of the civil service. I wonder how AI will police the nation or attend to the sick?

But, what am I saying? There is no such conspiracy. Teachers are just seasonal au pair/babysitters. Their time has come to be replaced. Late payment is just the means to send the message.

NATESHA LINDSAY