Tweet
Please pay them
TAMARA SCOTT-WILLIAMS
Sunday, May 09, 2010
WE owe a deep debt of gratitude to our teachers. So on this Mother's Day, I'd like to pay tribute to the more than 27,000 teachers in the school system. Well, maybe not all of them. There are a few, three exactly, that I think should be put out of our misery and must be made to repay the schools for accepting money under false pretences.
I feel it for school teachers who are yet to recover the $4 billion owed to them by the Government for what was promised them: outstanding salary increases. The figure works out to be an average of $174,000 per teacher -- not a lot of money for the Government on a per capita basis, but a would-be welcome amount considering that teachers' earnings are often far to low to provide a reasonable standard of living. In the public school system, early childhood teachers' salaries range from a low of $14,800 (per month) to a high of $25,645.32 for a college-trained early childhood institution teacher.
Teachers are as much responsible for the learning that happens in a classroom, such as this one, as they are for the life lessons children take away from the classroom.
Teachers are as much responsible for the learning that happens in a classroom, such as this one, as they are for the life lessons children take away from the classroom.
1/1 
It must hurt our teachers to hear the prime minister discount the notion of shaving the size of his Cabinet just to save a few million. The amount he would save, he said, would barely pay for a good utility vehicle. For those teachers who wrestle with the public transportation system every day, that amount would pay their transportation costs for a week.
Our teachers, the good ones, should be earning as much as a doctor, lawyer or even a politician, for their jobs are critical to national development.
I remember all of my St Hugh's Prep teachers and many of the lessons learnt there: not to lift up my skirt in Mrs Abrahams class no matter how pretty my panties were and never, ever let Miss Murray see you run with scissors. Somewhere along the line I learnt enough Math and English and Current Affairs to get into St Hugh's High School (under the no-big-deal Common Entrance Examination), and there I met Mrs Dash who simultaneously taught me the significance of the American Revolution and the importance of the right shade of red lipstick, and Miss Shim who made the written word sound like music. (While I'm at it, I'd like to big up Mrs Dove, Mrs Smith, Mrs Figueroa, Mrs Carnegie, Miss Thomas, Mrs Wilkins, Miss Jenoure, Mrs Harrison, Mrs Brady, Mrs Cruikshank, Mrs Whitfield, Mrs Cousins and Mrs Mullings).
The point is that teachers are as much responsible for the learning that happens in a classroom as they are for the life lessons children take away from the classroom. Let's not forget that teachers are often our children's daytime mothers: wiping noses, hushing boo-boos, reminding them of their manners, managing their social situations, counselling our children through emotional and personal challenges, and positioning themselves as mentors and role models for our young boys and girls. And in addition to that work, they are responsible for moulding the minds of future engineers, doctors, athletes, artists, administrators, writers and yes, politicians, too.
So while the timing of the delivery was insensitive (at the end of the two-day impasse) I don't discount Minister Audley Shaw's suggestion that the teacher's pay package be tied to performance. For educators, concerned with incentives to motivate the optimal performance by their students, this should be a comfortable and familiar environment for them to operate in.
The fact of the matter, however, is that the playfield nuh level, and were teachers to be paid based on the outcome of the students, then the Government has a duty to provide an educational system wherein all schools are given the requisite resources to attend to their duties and responsibilities.
And if the Government is to demand a higher level of performance from our teachers, and in fact from all our public sector workers, then members of the Government too must be held to a higher standard. If the minister of security's pay was docked for every life lost to violence in this country, then perhaps we would get more of a sense of urgency about the duties he is supposed to perform.
If the ministers of labour, investment, commerce, trade, et al were to receive bonuses for every job created, then perhaps more of our at-risk youth would be gainfully employed. Think of the possibilities of pay for performance at the government level.
It took Minister Shaw four attempts to cast the budget for this financial year, he may or may not get a redo. The teachers who prepare our students for GSAT get a single chance to ensure their success in the exam. Playfield nuh level.
While the Jamaica Teachers' Association's decision to strike and then work to rule last week may have angered and inconvenienced many parents who were forced to find adequate supervision for their children over two days, the minister of education has stated that those two days will be added back to the school year to recover any learning time lost.
The point of the strike, however, should not be lost. The Government failed to honour a contract that they had signed to pay the teachers retroactive salaries. They made a similar contract with the nurses and failed to make good on it. The Debt Exchange Programme was a contract whose terms were revised. These actions violate one of the first lessons we all learnt about integrity and good citizenship: if you make a promise, you should keep it.
And it was probably a teacher who taught us that.
scowicomm@gmail.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...ra-May-9--2010
TAMARA SCOTT-WILLIAMS
Sunday, May 09, 2010
WE owe a deep debt of gratitude to our teachers. So on this Mother's Day, I'd like to pay tribute to the more than 27,000 teachers in the school system. Well, maybe not all of them. There are a few, three exactly, that I think should be put out of our misery and must be made to repay the schools for accepting money under false pretences.
I feel it for school teachers who are yet to recover the $4 billion owed to them by the Government for what was promised them: outstanding salary increases. The figure works out to be an average of $174,000 per teacher -- not a lot of money for the Government on a per capita basis, but a would-be welcome amount considering that teachers' earnings are often far to low to provide a reasonable standard of living. In the public school system, early childhood teachers' salaries range from a low of $14,800 (per month) to a high of $25,645.32 for a college-trained early childhood institution teacher.
Teachers are as much responsible for the learning that happens in a classroom, such as this one, as they are for the life lessons children take away from the classroom.
Teachers are as much responsible for the learning that happens in a classroom, such as this one, as they are for the life lessons children take away from the classroom. 1/1 Our teachers, the good ones, should be earning as much as a doctor, lawyer or even a politician, for their jobs are critical to national development.
I remember all of my St Hugh's Prep teachers and many of the lessons learnt there: not to lift up my skirt in Mrs Abrahams class no matter how pretty my panties were and never, ever let Miss Murray see you run with scissors. Somewhere along the line I learnt enough Math and English and Current Affairs to get into St Hugh's High School (under the no-big-deal Common Entrance Examination), and there I met Mrs Dash who simultaneously taught me the significance of the American Revolution and the importance of the right shade of red lipstick, and Miss Shim who made the written word sound like music. (While I'm at it, I'd like to big up Mrs Dove, Mrs Smith, Mrs Figueroa, Mrs Carnegie, Miss Thomas, Mrs Wilkins, Miss Jenoure, Mrs Harrison, Mrs Brady, Mrs Cruikshank, Mrs Whitfield, Mrs Cousins and Mrs Mullings).
The point is that teachers are as much responsible for the learning that happens in a classroom as they are for the life lessons children take away from the classroom. Let's not forget that teachers are often our children's daytime mothers: wiping noses, hushing boo-boos, reminding them of their manners, managing their social situations, counselling our children through emotional and personal challenges, and positioning themselves as mentors and role models for our young boys and girls. And in addition to that work, they are responsible for moulding the minds of future engineers, doctors, athletes, artists, administrators, writers and yes, politicians, too.
So while the timing of the delivery was insensitive (at the end of the two-day impasse) I don't discount Minister Audley Shaw's suggestion that the teacher's pay package be tied to performance. For educators, concerned with incentives to motivate the optimal performance by their students, this should be a comfortable and familiar environment for them to operate in.
The fact of the matter, however, is that the playfield nuh level, and were teachers to be paid based on the outcome of the students, then the Government has a duty to provide an educational system wherein all schools are given the requisite resources to attend to their duties and responsibilities.
And if the Government is to demand a higher level of performance from our teachers, and in fact from all our public sector workers, then members of the Government too must be held to a higher standard. If the minister of security's pay was docked for every life lost to violence in this country, then perhaps we would get more of a sense of urgency about the duties he is supposed to perform.
If the ministers of labour, investment, commerce, trade, et al were to receive bonuses for every job created, then perhaps more of our at-risk youth would be gainfully employed. Think of the possibilities of pay for performance at the government level.
It took Minister Shaw four attempts to cast the budget for this financial year, he may or may not get a redo. The teachers who prepare our students for GSAT get a single chance to ensure their success in the exam. Playfield nuh level.
While the Jamaica Teachers' Association's decision to strike and then work to rule last week may have angered and inconvenienced many parents who were forced to find adequate supervision for their children over two days, the minister of education has stated that those two days will be added back to the school year to recover any learning time lost.
The point of the strike, however, should not be lost. The Government failed to honour a contract that they had signed to pay the teachers retroactive salaries. They made a similar contract with the nurses and failed to make good on it. The Debt Exchange Programme was a contract whose terms were revised. These actions violate one of the first lessons we all learnt about integrity and good citizenship: if you make a promise, you should keep it.
And it was probably a teacher who taught us that.
scowicomm@gmail.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...ra-May-9--2010
Comment