WITH just a day left until students return to school, some principals are still scrambling to fill teacher vacancies while others are breathing a heavy sigh of relief that the hunt is over and they will have their full complement of staff on September 2.

Mark Malabver, principal of Yallahs High School in St Thomas, described the teacher shortage as a crisis, lamenting that despite his best efforts he has not filled six vacancies and will have to stretch his resources thin when school reopens.

“It has been difficult for us over the years, and certainly, what I am recognising is that the crisis keeps getting deeper and deeper. I am a little bit fortunate that this year there were no resignations in my math department, but science has really taken a serious hit this year. I have lost some quality teachers to teacher migration over the years, and the crisis is deepening,” he told the Jamaica Observer last week Wednesday.

“Whilst we have been doing interviews, there has not been much take-up in terms of the offers… I need persons in literacy, I need physical education teachers as well, so it’s hard. It’s not likely I’ll be able to start the school year with the full complement,” said Malabver.

He added he also needs to fill a vacancy for a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) teacher.

Additionally, Malabver said he will have to make some drastic changes to adjust to the school’s current circumstances.

“Certainly classes will have to be merged. We may have to remove one of the TVET areas from the curriculum for this term; that may have to be an option if I’m unable to recruit a teacher. One of my teachers is out for four months, and these areas — technical and vocational areas — teachers are in very short supply. So, we are going to just have to make some hard decisions. It’s a last resort really, but it is what it is,” he said.

Winsome Reid, principal of Clan Clarty Primary School, recalling her experience recruiting teachers this year, said had it not been for her aggressive approach to filling vacancies she would have been in a similar position.

With five out of six vacancies filled and interviews wrapping up to fill the last position, she said she is thanking God that she was able to secure teachers.

“It has been very tiring but, thank God, I feel that we are blessed — our positions are filled, and we are ready for Monday morning,” said Reid.

“We have been advertising since June, and have not stopped advertising. One of the things I realised is that in days gone by, applicants would call us to find out if we received their applications but now, as soon as the applications come in and we look at them to shortlist, we have to immediately set up the interview because there are so many vacancies — the teachers are getting jobs quick,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“We approached it aggressively, and as soon as we got the applications we just set up the interviews immediately. As a matter of fact, some of those who we called, by the time the interview came around — within sometimes less than a week — they would have already gotten jobs, so we recognised what was happening and that we couldn’t wait. If we waited, then we knew what was going to happen — they would get other jobs,” she explained.

The teacher exodus is an issue that newly installed Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Dr Mark Smith said remains a challenge for the education system.

According to data from the Ministry of Education, a total of 1,538 educators resigned between January and September 2022. An additional 854 teachers resigned between January and September 2023.

“Our schools are struggling to keep pace with the migration of high school teachers [and] also in primary schools [where we lose science, technology and mathematics teachers]. Our present reality is a precarious one, at best. Despite possessing the local capacity within our teacher training institutions, we’re seeing dwindling numbers. The profession is just not attractive,” Dr Smith said at the 60th annual JTA conference two weeks ago, stressing that the dynamic has to change.

Opposition spokesman on education Damion Crawford, voicing concern about the matter, said the situation is of crisis proportions. He accused the ministry of forging the figures and demanded that the matter be investigated.

“The ministry needs to say the numbers who have left the classrooms in the last five years. We also would like to know what is the number of posts that have not been filled for any period of time over the last four years,” he said at a press briefing last week.

However, Education Minister Fayval Williams stands firm that the situation is improving, and that fewer public school teachers are leaving the island.

“Based on the numbers that have been collated for this year — and we’re looking at September to August of 2023/24 versus 22/23 — the most current information that we have is that a total of 102 fewer teachers resigned this year than last year,” Williams said last week Wednesday in response to media queries during a post-Cabinet press briefing.

While some principals might not be seeing the effects of this change reported by the minister, others have said they are losing fewer teachers and are having less difficulty recruiting.

For Susan White, the principal of St Patrick’s Primary, her school lost fewer teachers this year, making the recruitment process smoother.

“Unfortunately for us, last year we lost 11 teachers — some due to migration, and some went to other parishes because they were living in those areas. Because of the migration of teachers the market opened up wide, and so some of them took jobs that were closer to where they lived,” she explained.

“But this year we only had one person who migrated and the others who would have gone into retirement so we planned for that in advance. Fortunately for us, we were able to fill those gaps with newly trained teachers so we were one of the fortunate ones this year. Last year was very difficult for us so God decided to smile on us this year,” she told the Sunday Observer.

At Central Branch All-Age, Principal Michael Sutherland shared that, fortunately, he is not experiencing issues with teacher retention.

“We have low staff turnover so our teachers are all here still. We will be ready for September,” said Sutherland.

Additionally, vice-principal for Allman Town Primary School Thamar Russell-Brown, when asked, said the school is not experiencing any issues recruiting teachers and will be ready for the new school year.

“We’re okay so far. We are on track for what we should be doing, and we are just working assiduously to get things done,” Russell-Brown said in reference to infrastructure work such as painting and cleaning.

“All should be well come September 2,” she added.