Teachers forced to run a marathon

In these tempestuous times in the teaching profession, the race is now on to protect the teachers from losing their multiple privileges. In decades gone by the traditional teacher had to deal with going to college to get the certification and upgrade his/her status in order to stand a chance of remaining current with educational trends and issues.

During this time, the teachers were often given the shotgun treatment whenever the literacy and numeracy grades were below standard and GSAT results in some regions were less than desirable. In addition, under-resourced teachers had to compete in the race by strategising various approaches to improve the results, though many of the students have serious learning disabilities. Annually, in August, chastisement would always come from various consultants of the education ministry questioning the qualifications of the teachers of CXC and CAPE subjects when the results were undesirable, charging that teachers were not qualifying and adapting themselves to the technological and content changes. So, again, some of the teachers went racing to universities; whether it be full-time or part-time to compete in the race of approval from the ministry.

Since the last decade, teachers who ran the retirement race had to do the necessaries to get their full pension, for many of their colleagues before them had died in wait of receiving their just deserved lump-sum. Since then, many of them learned how to manage their stress and planned how they would survive without collapsing before a packed class of less-than-compliant children.

Right behind that was another race that is now delayed, ie for the teachers to be licensed based on their certification and qualification. That gave the now very exhausted teachers little time to catch a breather, since they were now shot into the martial area once again because they had to find alternative means of studying. In some corners people are saying that if a teacher cannot recover quickly from illnesses, then the "work horse" ought to be sent to the 'knackers' yard. Also, there is talk that the annual increment that was awarded to teachers to offset the increasing cost of living will be removed. This is a race without a track judge and officials, but only the starter who cannot be at the finish line at the same time.

Is there a real finish line in sight? Are there forces that want to have teachers collapse like the horse called Royal Dad in the late 1970s? If proper dialogue is not engaged, then Jamaica will once again be facing a situation like that of the 1980s where many of our qualified teachers may travel to a less hostile environment and pre-trained teachers will once again inundate the classrooms. Jamaica does not need an exodus; it will not run well with our students. However, if there are no positive and civil changes, then teachers will have to find profitable alternatives to win the race of survival.

Let's be true innovators improving students' performance

I wish to congratulate the Caribbean Examinations Council for moving in the right direction utilising technology and encouraging students to use the internet to access their CXC/CSEC results.

I know that there are households that may not have computers, but this is a cost-reduction method that I thought was brilliant. Also, years ago, many students were not given their results due to outstanding school fees, and students' chances to enter college immediately were denied.

After the release of the results, my music students started calling me after midnight, so from the early hours of Saturday, August 11, until about 9 am I was happily denied regular sleep. The results were very good. All had passed and not only for my subject, but also for the other subjects they had taken.

On investigation, the success rate for the school where I work was extremely high, as usual. So, the question is: why the prime-time broadcast recently by one of our ministers that might have implied that all high schools have received poor exam results? It is never good to generalise where results are concerned. Yes, the percentage trends in the performance of the CXC/CSEC results have wavered, but I think those schools that have maintained consistent results should be publicly commended. Let the successful schools be contracted by the education ministry to write papers showing the best practices used to guarantee excellent performance.

Why have those politicians who have not done well at public service escaped assessment? Are they really held accountable for underachievement? Does the government put a performance checklist in the over 60 constituencies for us to use to measure MPs' performance?

But we find that all teachers are placed under a huge public microscope and the public checklist is never clearly seen, but all teachers seem to be checked off for underperformance when unfavourable results are found. Pre-set labels have been clearly made, posted, and broadcast against teachers.

Yes, there are teachers that should be plucked from the classrooms and the Jamaica Teachers' Association needs to revamp its stance on "bad teachers" and get rid of them, but seriously, no one can deny that teachers are the ones who truly hold up a nation in providing a literate and numerate population. There are factors that prevent 100 per cent literacy and numeracy of our people such as bad parenting, poor health, and domestic abuse, but let us recognise the schools that have tried and worked hard, made strategic and pedagogical improvements. They have done well in ensuring that students are armed with the tools and skills needed to move to the next stage of their lives after high school. Let us not be myopic in our grandstanding but be true innovators with our journey to improve students' performance in general.