Dear Editor,

The two-day strike by teachers has confirmed to me what I have known all along. It is clear that what is foremost on the teachers’ mind is money. The development and academic success of our nation’s children must take a back seat while our teachers behave in an unethical and unreasonable manner. This move by the teachers is ill-advised and shows a clear lack of commitment to nation building.

I will never argue that teachers should not be paid money that is due and overdue to them. I can’t recall the government ever suggesting that they were unwilling to pay. What I hear is that there is no money to pay the teachers all that is due to them in one payment. They all get a cheque on the 25th of each month, so it is not a question as to whether or not they are being paid.

When one looks at the performance of our children over the years and the results of the most recent Grade Four numeracy test, one wonders if the nation’s teachers who chose to sit at home don’t feel any sense of contrition. The loquacious president of the JTA should consider adding the poor performance of teachers to his garrulous encounters with the media. Might I enlighten the teachers of this country that students don’t fail, teachers do.

As an educator myself, I am so embarrassed at the attitude of the teachers. I know that my gratification in the classroom does not come from emoluments, and that is perhaps why I have 100 per cent passes in all the subjects I teach. Staying off the job amounts to more parents having to stay home with their children, which means less production and less revenue for the government. The same government is being called on to find money to pay the teachers. I guess the teachers who stayed home could not do the maths.

Pastor Daren Larmond

Optilearn1@yahoo.com