Teachers fit for export

George R. Dawkins, Guest Columnist

I support the views of Garth Anderson, principal of Church Teachers' College, in his article, 'Leave teachers' colleges alone' in the Tuesday edition of The Gleaner, February 18, 2014.

Mr Anderson is quite correct in his description of the role and function of teachers' colleges in training teachers with the requisite skills sets for teaching and non-teaching jobs, and for their contribution to national development.

Recently, and not for the first time, there has been much concern over the apparent oversupply of teachers in the Jamaican education system. It has always been the case that the teachers' colleges supply more teachers than the education system can accommodate. In support of this argument, Professor Errol Miller, in an October 2013 address titled 'Sixty Years of Teacher Education: Lessons for the 21st-century Educator' at the inaugural Conference of Jamaica Teacher Educators in Montego Bay, posited that over a 60-year period, about 90,000 teachers have been trained by colleges and universities for a school system that operates with 25,000 teachers. "Taking the working life of a teacher prior to retirement to be 35 years, the output of the colleges has been in excess of the demand for teachers by the school system. over the period."

Current aggregate data from three categories of financial institutions, three major hotel chains, and service industries in Jamaica (Table 1) that have employed teachers in various capacities has indicated the need to continue to train teachers at the current level. Table 1 also indicates the diverse areas of employment that require generic or specialised skills sets.

Employers have pointed out that teachers are easily trainable for jobs in these industries and that they possess the requisite academic, personal and social skills.

One hotel manager, in response to the question, 'What can the colleges do to train teachers for the hotel industry?', pointed out that the two early childhood specialists who work in the Child Development Centre have applied aspects of the colleges' EC curriculum in catering to the needs of the children, for which they have received high commendation from parents, and hotel stakeholders.

He is particularly pleased with how the teachers have been able to infuse play and games into targeted learning outcomes and are able to generate reports for parents on the children's experiences and achievements.

Additionally, teachers do not limit themselves to employment in Jamaica. As Miller pointed out in his address to the Teachers' Colleges of Jamaica (TCJ) during the 2013 TCJ Inaugural Research Conference:

The products of Jamaican teacher education have proven to be internationally competitive. Without preferential arrangements between governments, Jamaican teachers, on their own initiative, have established the validity of their education, training and credentials by competence and performance in the international marketplace in a manner not dissimilar to our musicians, entertainers, athletes, sportsmen and informal commercial importers.

PACKAGED FOR EXPORT

It is acknowledged that Jamaica has one of the highest rates of migration of persons with tertiary education among Commonwealth countries. Dr Cyrus Rustomjee, director of economic affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, reported in The Gleaner, July 3, 2012, that based on a 2007 study, 85 per cent of Jamaicans who have migrated are tertiary graduates.

At face value, this may seem to be negative, but Dr Rustomjee said the loss of skilled migrants such as nurses and teachers was countered by the issue of remittances, which are a very valuable source of household income for small states.

Strategic and coordinated export of Jamaican trained teachers who invariably will remit money to Jamaica can be a boost to Jamaica's ailing economy. Jamaican teachers are well trained with the requisite blend of content specialisation, general education, and professional courses delivered with appropriate pedagogy and a variety of deductive and inductive methodologies.

In addition, Jamaican teachers' experiences of working in inner-city schools, in crowded classrooms with inadequate teaching and physical resources, and in a variety of school settings have made them very versatile with adaptable skill sets to work in any global environment. They are, therefore, fit for export.

Let us not continue to lament the oversupply of teachers; let us instead work on packaging a good product for export - our world-class teachers.

George R. Dawkins, PhD, is acting vice-principal, academic affairs and research, Shortwood Teachers' College. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and georgedawkins@stcoll.edu.jm.

Table 1

Number - Companies- N- Number of employees - # of trained Teachers- % -Employed positions

• 1- Insurance companies (life, property, motor vehicles) -4 -2,478 - 742 - 30 - Financial advisers, managers, administrative assistants system administrators, clerical staff, customer service representatives.
  
• 2 - Banks, building societies, and credit unions - 15 - 12,893 - 2,450 - 19- Tellers, customer-service representatives, system administrators, supervisors, middle managers
  
• 3 - Hotel industry (3 major hotel chains) - 18 - 4,456 - 446 - 10 - Entertainment coordinators, day-care coordinators, front desk clerks, food and beverage managers, telephone operators
• 4 - Service industries, utility companies, cable and Internet providers - 6 - 1,438 - 1,150 - 8 - Technicians, customer-service representatives, telephone operators, clerical staff, marketing officers
  

Note. Data estimated and summarised from human resource managers' data files