WHILE actively preparing infrastructure and repairing furniture to welcome back their students for the new academic year, principals at some primary and secondary schools in St Ann say they are still searching relentlessly to fill teacher vacancies by September 2.

“The major issue is with staffing; we still haven’t replaced all the teachers that have resigned,” Brown’s Town High School Principal Alfred Thomas told the Jamaica Observer. “We advertise multiple times. We have invited persons in for interviews and some don’t turn up on the day of the interview. There is still the concern [regarding] if we will have more resignations going into next week.”

Thomas said although the school is not adequately staffed, his team is excited about the term ahead and has been beautifying the campus in preparation.

“We are doing repair of our furniture, minor repair to our school plant and paintings. We have all of the items in place in the event that a parent reaches out for assistance because we know they are last-minute,” he added

Two other principals said that they, too, are trying to keep their schools afloat amidst a lack of trained teachers.

“I’m still working on getting staff in place because the teacher shortage is affecting us,” Retirement Primary School Principal Nadeen Fisher said last week.

At the time Fisher spoke with the
Sunday Observer she had received a resignation from a teacher the week before. On Friday she said she had found a replacement for the teacher.

She also said minor repairs on the building were scheduled to be completed by Saturday, August 31.

“I’m also working on getting my teachers furniture but I’m anticipating that we will be ready,” Fisher said.

Principal of Discovery Bay High School Dwayne Mulgrave said the teacher migration has left him with no option but to hire pre-trained graduates, who are not necessarily qualified for the task.

“I would’ve managed to replace teachers who have resigned with young graduates but this will impact the quality of teaching. They have degrees in varied fields that we believe we can engage to teach some subjects, however they don’t necessarily have the skills that are required to deliver lessons. Some work will have to be done to build capacity in those individuals,” reasoned Mulgrave.

Though Servite Primary has not experienced a teacher shortage, the school was terribly affected by the onslaught of Hurricane Beryl in July. Principal Nigel Palmer said he and his team are still working assiduously to welcome students in a face-to-face setting.

“The margins are close but I believe we will resume on September second. The work that’s left can be done on the weekends; the roof has been replaced and the men are working to replace the ceilings,” said Palmer.

“Our issue is with furniture shortage but we were promised some replacements by the [education] ministry, which we hope to get soon,” he added.

On Wednesday, Education Minister Fayval Williams told a post-Cabinet press briefing that the teacher exodus is slowing.

“The most current information that we have is that a total of 102 fewer teachers resigned this year than last year,” said Williams who had last year reported that a total of 854 teachers had resigned between January and September 2023, which represented a 44 per cent reduction when compared to a similar period in 2022.

A total of 1,538 educators resigned between January and September in 2022.