Retired teachers ready to fill gap

RETIRED teachers will accept the Government's invitation to return to the classroom to fill the gaps created with the recruitment of local teachers abroad.

However, there is at least one condition.

"They would not want to accept a salary less than they earned previously to their retirement," President of the Retired Teachers' Association, Vernal Norman, told The Sunday Gleaner on Friday.

Mr. Norman said that there is a general consensus among retired teachers that they were looking forward to returning to the classroom in September, the beginning of the new school year. He said that "even though there has not been any official approach made (by the Government) as yet," his members have been weighing their options.

Some retired teachers told The Sunday Gleaner that although they are still disappointed over the Government's handling of the overcrowding in the schools, the majority concluded that they would return to the classroom.

"I have been a principal for eight years, and if they had asked me earlier I would have loved to go back," said retired Principal Maudlin Dawkins, who had been with the Pembroke Hall Primary School for 33 years.

There are, however, no incentives or bargains that have been put forward by the Government in an attempt to lure teachers out of retirement, and according to Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) Liaison Officer, Patrick Smith, the current policy maintains that retired teachers returning to the classroom will have to start at entry-level salaries. Teachers are paid according to their qualifications and years of experience.

But that may not deter all retired teachers. Ms. Dawkins, who retired a few months ago, said that teachers would have to "give and take for that because we are already retired."

According to Mr. Norman, the retirees are willing because "pension is small and any addition earning will be welcomed, but not at any cost."

But even as the retired teachers debate their possible return to the classroom, there seems to be uncertainty as to whether an official invitation has been made by the Government. Edwin Thomas, the Ministry's information officer, said that he had nothing in writing to indicate what the Government intends to do. He said he did not know how many retired teachers the Government could bring back into the system.

"The Government would not know for sure what shortages they would be faced with, until the start of the new school year," Mr. Thomas said.

Several groups from the United States and the United Kingdom have been in the island recruiting local teachers since the start of the year. A team from the Centre for Recruitment and Professional Development of New York City Public Schools selected more than 600 local teachers to teach in the U.S during a three-day recruitment drive.

The Government has since lamented the shortage that the recruitment drive could bring. Last year it had announced a rationalisation programme that would result in about 300 teachers losing their jobs. There was opposition from the JTA, which represents some 20,000 teachers islandwide.

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