Government to consider teacher re-classification

Garwin Davis, Staff Reporter

"THERE is no way we can compete with the United States in terms of a pay package," Education Minister Burchell Whiteman told The Sunday Gleaner last week. "So are we going to have to increase salaries (of teachers) to prevent teachers from leaving? I do not see how this can happen."

The Mminister who took some blame for teachers emigrating to overseas classrooms, noted that the Government five years ago had reclassified teachers. He said that in the next round of negotiations it would again explore the possibility.

"... It may be that the time has come where we have to look at teachers and civil servants. In the next round of negotiations, yes, we will look at re-classification of teachers but in terms of a salary, no, that is not an option," the minister said.

He added that the Ministry of Finance had already undergone a new tax structure specifically for teachers where their take home pay has now increased. "In terms of the new tax structure, teachers are today taking home more money," he explained. "There are also long-term benefits in terms of the new pension structure where they are also seeing significant increases."

Direct relation

Mr. Whiteman added that it was not just money and conditions of work that were influencing teachers to leave for overseas jobs, noting that islands like Trinidad which had given their teachers up to a 30 per cent increase were experiencing the same teacher-migration problem as Jamaica.

"Even in our sister territories of Barbados and Trinidad, with reportedly better pay, some teachers have been attracted away," he said.

However, his rationale is not sitting well with some teachers, many of whom maintain that salary and working conditions are the main reasons why teachers have decided to seek their fortunes overseas.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that there is a direct relation between remuneration and the whole migration issue," notes Dr. Adolph Cameron, secretary general of the Jamaica Teachers' Association. "I am also on the executive of the Caribbean Teachers' Union and in dialogue with officials from Trinidad I am told that they have agreed to give teachers more money and are finding that a lot of those who had planned to leave will no longer be doing so. This is why we know that there is a parallel between the salary issue and migration."

Cecelia Grant, principal of Kilsyth Primary and Infant School, Clarendon, agreed. "Teachers have left for want of a better life," she said. "If they felt secure in the knowledge that working conditions and salaries are adequate then they wouldn't have to leave for a life of uncertainty."

Judith Spencer-Jarrett, former president of the JTA, said she felt at first that the mass migration of teachers would have been what she called "a blessing in disguise" and a chance for the ministry to re-examine some of the issues facing teachers. "I see it as a chance to revisit some of the things we have been talking about for years," she said. "So far the rhetoric doesn't offer much hope but it is still early days."

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