Dear Editor,

As graduation season progresses I am moved to express my admiration for the love shown to students by parents, teachers, and Jamaicans at large. The emotions on display are so overwhelming they expand like clouds covering the Jamaican atmosphere.

It is, however, disheartening that while our students continue to excel, the hard work of our assiduous teachers seem to go unrecognised. The evidence is presented in the number of vacancies advertised daily in the media.

I speak in particular of job postings in the Careers section of The Sunday Gleaner. Between June 18 and July 2 approximately 300 vacant teaching positions have been advertised. As the days progress, the vacant teaching positions increase. It is still early days, but will the education sector simply look on with great disappointment as our teachers take flight?

Minister of Education Fayval Williams, where are we going wrong? Why are our teachers leaving in such large numbers?

The answer is quite simple — the need for better wages, attractive compensation packages, and reduced workload.

The ministry must seek to reduce the torture teachers have to endure writing lesson plans in their free time by developing a lesson plan bank from which teachers can pull and teach lessons, thereby allowing weekends for family and recreational time.

Minister, if this teacher migration continues for another five years, not only will Jamaica face the impact of brain drain, but I guarantee parents will be the new teachers of their very own children.

Please save our teachers, Minister.

Nordia Thompson

Educator

nordia.thompson@hotmail.com