THE MEMBERS of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, worn down by an inordinately long period of negotiation, have apparently thrown in the towel and accepted Government's pay increase of three per cent. In the overall perspective of the teaching profession in Jamaica, there had been hope that Government would regain the moral high ground by bringing teachers salaries up to an acceptable level, licensing them and, thereafter, linking further pay increases to performance.
By stubbornly forcing a meagre three per cent wage increase upon teachers, Government has lost any moral capital it may have had in dealing with this issue. The same old tragic cycle of mediocrity will perpetuate itself against a background of teachers feeling that since they don't get paid properly they need not perform properly. Instead of being treated like professionals, teachers will again see themselves as mere hired hands. This continued institutionalisation of low wages discourages bright young candidates from enrolling in teacher-training colleges whose admittance standards remain disgracefully low at four CXC passes at Grade III.
There are always exceptions, of course, and we tend emotionally to reach out to those motivated teachers, few in number, who overcome all obstacles in honouring their vocation. We want to see them as representative of the total cohort but, in fact, a masking process is taking place in which good intentions substitute for poor results.
It is difficult for reforming voices crying in the wilderness to overcome the bureaucracy of good but ineffective people who populate the system and who themselves have become comfortable with it.
An average teacher's pre-tax pay is about $350,000 per annum including allowances. By no stretch of the imagination can this be acceptable - financial constraints notwithstanding. Over a three-year period, we think that the average teacher's pay should be increased to no less than $500,000 per annum and to reach this goal the increase for 2003/2004 should have been about 15 per cent. By holding the increase to three per cent, the Government may have won the battle but lost the war and Jamaica will be the worse for it.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
