Garth Rattray | Our teachers’ dilemma

Last year, many teachers were [effectively] sent home on early retirement at the age of 60 years old. Although teachers may opt for early retirement, forcing them out at 60 years old is a breach of the Pensions (Public Service) Act, 2017. None of them were prepared for this sudden loss of employment. The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) correctly asserts that this was done illegally. Teachers are supposed to retire at 65 years old.

The Gleaner article dated Monday, March 3, stated that, “Last month, the education ministry sent a letter to board chairmen and educators in the government teaching service, advising them that it had ceased the issuance of retirement notices for educators whose effective date of retirement has not been attained.”

The article added, “… teachers who had returned to the classrooms, owing to the intervention of the JTA, reportedly received letters from the ministry rescinding their retirement.” It went on… “The JTA said a retirement schedule for a five-year transitional period was established for teachers. However, the Government was implementing a 10-year transitional period.” Reportedly, the JTA did not settle on that 10-year transitional period because it was not in agreement with that arrangement.

The JTA’s head, Mr Winston Smith, bemoaned, “We had some assurances from the Ministry of Education that no one would have been sent off, but, apparently, some people were still being sent off, and that is why we had to flex our muscle to say, ‘No, there is an agreement’.”

Smith nixed the idea that teachers who were sent off should request a work extension in writing to the ministry. He argued that the law guarantees that teachers work up to 65, so they should not have to request an extension if they were [forcibly] sent on early retirement. Mr Smith expected that teachers must be allowed to return to work in their substantive posts.

ABSTRACT

To most Jamaicans, the teachers’ dilemma is abstract until they understand how this very unfair situation affects teachers individually. Charmaine (not her real name) explained how she is being severely impacted by this random, illegal act by faceless and nameless government bureaucrats, who will duck, cover, and remain unaccountable… as usual. She is not coping well.

As far back as she can remember, from the day that she was able to speak, Charmaine had a burning passion for teaching. She played with figurines that represented her in the classroom, and the leaves on the trees represented her students. As an adolescent, she attended Shortwood Teachers’ College, then did the Diploma in Education at St. Joseph’s Teacher’s College. She returned to Shortwood to do her Bachelor’s Degree, then did her Master’s Degree at the University of South Florida.

She began teaching when she was 22 years old. She specialised in early childhood education and spent all her years teaching children between grades one and two. Despite her many years of service to our children, the future of our country, the information about her retirement was unceremoniously delivered by way of a general online link. Even the school administration was uninformed of this decision and totally taken aback by it.

Luckily, Charmaine was offered a job at her old school. This is an unusual situation because, as a rule, retired teachers are not allowed to return to the public school system, they must seek employment in private (Prep school) classrooms. Charmaine returned to the school to which she was very accustomed, however, as a retired teacher, she is employed on a contractual basis.

As a retired teacher, she lost all her privileges and hard-earned position. She was at the top of her scale, and now she has been demoted to the bottom of the scale. She was not returned to work in her substantive post.

MASSIVE LOSS

This represents a massive loss of position, salary, and benefits. In a country where most people are experiencing a very difficult life, hers became even more difficult.

Charmaine was forcibly retired on November 16, 2024, and although she was allowed to resume working on March 3, to date she has not received any pay whatsoever. She has completed all the requisite paperwork, but nothing has happened. She remarked that there are retired teachers who have been patiently waiting on their retirement monies for two to three years.

Charmaine has several non-communicable diseases but has lost her essential health insurance benefits. Furthermore, she will not receive any National Insurance Scheme (NIS) until she reaches the [legal] age of retirement of 65 years old. Until then, she gets nothing. Charmaine has been shoved out and sent adrift, living in hope that the appropriate government bodies can get their act together.

The powers that be obviously do not take into consideration the cold reality of elderly citizens in jobs that can barely meet their day-to-day expenses, being denied necessary and due income at a time like this in their lives and at a time like this in our country.

Charmaine has been desperately running from pillar to post in an effort to attain some modicum of financial footing. She was wrongfully stripped of her ability to earn a living and is forced to try to start all over again. Charmaine is far from unique. There are many teachers similarly illegally forced into early retirement.

Teachers are the people that we depend on to educate our future generation and future leaders… yet they are being treated unfairly, cruelly, and with disrespect. They do not need vapid excuses and inaction; they need justice.

Garth Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice, and author of ‘The Long and Short of Thick and Thin’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com