It was only a matter of time
Dear Editor,
The old proverb which states “cow neva know di use of him tail til him lose it” is playing out on a critical September morning here in Jamaica.
The treatment meted out to the foundation profession of our society has now “radammed” in the face of the Ministry of Education.
It was only a matter of time before Jamaica would have been among the medals in the discipline of brain drain. The country has got the Global Economic Index silver medal in the brain drain category, which was only topped by Samoa. The Ministry of Education is at odds with the ranking and believes that Jamaica should not have got the silver medal.
The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) and principals, however, believe that the Government is the one to be blamed for the second-place award. The JTA sights wages and the below-standard treatment by the education ministry as two of the major factors which have led to the brain drain reality, which has been long in coming.
Most teachers teach “fi di love”. The economic situation in Jamaica, however, does not allow them to pay their bills with love notes. It does not look good seeing our teachers selling sweets and snacks to circumvent their malnourished stipends. According to the JTA’s former president, Winston Smith, a trained teacher at the first scale earns a net monthly salary of $133,788.82 in Jamaica, while that same teacher can earn up to six times that amount overseas. Now I believe it is the remittances of migrated teachers (cowards) which is putting a lot of water in the bucket of our economy.
Jamaica’s teachers are also faced with unrelated teaching issues that are not only taxing on their pockets but also challenge their sanity. They are forced to go to the gym and take karate classes to defend themselves against not just gangster parents but also thug students who are part-time “choppers”.
The saddest part is that after enduring the horrors of the classroom for over three decades, your pension barely reaches three scores and ten ($70,000). Our dearly beloved former Prime Minister P J Patterson ensured that there was no difference between a prime minister’s salary and pension. Politicians can always say what they wish about building Jamaica when they have houses and businesses making residual income in different parts of the world.
Now the question to the Minister of Education Fayval Williams, and by extension the Minister of Finance Nigel Clarke, is: How are things for September morning?
Hezekan Bolton
h_e_z_e@hotmail.com