With less than a week to go before school reopens, Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams has indicated that 854 teachers have resigned from the public sector between January and September this year.
It is twice as many resignations as the 427 reported by Williams during an August 16 post-Cabinet press briefing, but still 44 per cent fewer than the 1,538 teachers who resigned from the public school system during the corresponding period last year.
The education minister made the disclosure during yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in St Andrew, where she outlined that the ministry received a number of those resignations after the August pay cycle last Friday.
“Ahead of the school year, obviously, getting notice here a few days before school opens, I can fully understand the uncertainty of our principals and boards across Jamaica,” she said, though noting that a number of those positions have since been refilled.
While stressing that Section 54 of Education Regulations of 1980 requires teachers who are permanent in the system to give three months’ notice, and for those who hold temporary, acting or provisional positions to give one month’s notice, she described the “age old” practice of teacher resigning without notice as unprofessional and illegal.
Ministry proactive
However, Williams said, the ministry has been proactive in providing strategies for schools to utilise in their recruitment process. These include pre-approval given to boards to make early recruitment decisions, which may involve engaging part-time retired, pre-trained graduate teachers, and final-year student teachers.
She said schools could also take the decision to redeploy underutilised staff, merge small classes, use a block timetable approach, and increase the use of information and communications technology in the classroom, as well as utilise the recently launched job bank to seek out and hire teachers.
The minister noted that there are approximately 25,000 teachers in the 1,010 schools across the island, and that there is an available pool of almost 1,700 teachers to be employed.
“I know there will be the argument that maths teachers, English teachers and so on are the important ones in the system where we may see gaps. And yes, I will agree and we need to make sure that we are aggressive in terms of offering scholarships for those very important areas,” she said.
“The ministry stands ready. We have anticipated, we’ve given the strategies, we’ve given the approval for boards and principals to act, but at the same time, we will continue to provide additional resources to help our schools, to ensure that we make it smoothly through this upcoming school year,” she added.
