Commend, don't condemn our teachers

Teachers are an essential part of every society. They add value to the lives of our children, laying the foundation for the expansion of knowledge. Jamaican teachers have, undoubtedly, contributed to the development of a progressive nation.

Every professional, from architects to zoologists, owes his/her current status to the positive impact of teachers on his/her life. This is why it is sad to see the attacks, some of which appear orchestrated, against our teachers, who are demanding that the Government honour its written agreement to pay them their retroactive salaries. The Government is becoming notorious for not keeping its agreements and obligations. It matters not whether the obligations relate to the Consti-tution of Jamaica, as in the case of the Public Service Commission, or members of Parliament with dual citizenship.

Neither does it matter if it is a collective labour agreement, like the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) 3 with the trade unions, or extradition treaty with a friendly government. No wonder columnist Ian Boyne was compelled to write recently that the Government faces a "widening credibility deficit".

Cheap politics

With this credibility deficit, Audley Shaw has chosen to criticise the nation's teachers as unproductive. His evidence is based on recently published data showing literacy and numeracy levels at less-than-optimal levels in our primary schools. No one can be satisfied with these results. We want the best for every child in our school. We want all of them to master literacy and numeracy. No doubt, all our teachers share the same desire.

What Minister Shaw and others who criticise the teachers on grounds of low productivity have failed to address is, what was the starting point from which the current test scores were achieved? Productivity is a measurement of where you are, against where you are coming from. Productivity measures increase in output relative to the resources expended. In this respect, any criticism of teachers as unproductive must be disingenuous, unless we are given figures of the previous standing in respect of numeracy and literacy.

The minister of finance ought to know this fact, yet he has chosen to play cheap politics with the reputations of our educators. It is hard to believe that this was the same politician who, a few years ago, was opposed to the MOUs that were aimed at moderating and restraining wage increases in the public sector. This type of double standard is a big reason why the people are so distrusting of our leaders.

What Minister Shaw and others fail to appreciate is that teachers who take public transportation to school were recently hit with a 60 per cent increase in bus fares. Put another way, if a teacher takes two buses to work each day, he/she will have to find approximately $30,000 more per year just to attend school. The marking of homework and test papers often takes place at home in the evenings under the glare of increased electricity costs, occasioned by new tax mea-sures imposed by Minister Shaw. The increased price of meals and the cost of living are other burdens which the teachers have to bear. Imagine a teacher attending university to improve his or her ability to better teach our students. Such a teacher has to pay for tuition, or else he/she will be kicked out of university. Can he/she tell the university "not a red cent more"? Absolutely not!

Genuine efforts

If the minister wants to be sincere, he should be giving the university a guarantee that he will pay for the teachers who are threatened with deregistration because of the non-payment of retroactive salaries due to them. Similarly, he could have arranged a special pass from the bus company to allow payment of a lower fare until they received the money owed them by Government.

This may be too much to expect from a minister who does not understand the hardship that his fiscal policies are causing the people of Jamaica, whether they be middle class, classroom teachers, workers, or unemployed youth in various corners across the country.

I am aware of the yeoman efforts by thousands of teachers, despite the hardships, to educate the children of our country. In one inner-city non-traditional high school, I am aware of teachers who have been able to carry out their own quiet revolution in education despite the tremendous obstacles of limited resources, poor and sometimes no parenting, crime, and even the closure of school because of the discovery of dead bodies on the school compound.

Our children live in communities where studying becomes virtually impossible because of violence and the playing of loud music all night. It is in this environment that we demand that our teachers work miracles. Yet, in this inner-city school about which I write, teachers are able to get good results in difficult science subjects. With oversized classes, distracted and disruptive students, the CXC results for biology, integrated science and chemistry have revealed over 80 per cent passes based on the efforts of these teachers. In the case of physics exams, over 70 per cent of the students from one class were successful. This accomplishment required tremendous effort, energy and creativity on the part of the teachers and school administration.

In addition to success in exams, these teachers have led their students to be multiple winners in national science competitions - competitions in which the students are not just repeating materials from books, but are required to be innovative and creative. In this inner-city school, the teachers are working hard to produce 'winner city' students. These students are making progress when they triumph in national science quizzes, become champion athletes representing our country, essay writers and cultural stars.

Let us praise the successes of our hard-working teachers throughout the country, even as we try to assist those teachers who may not have achieved the desired result. Let us always start by admitting that, oftentimes, we have given our teachers baskets to carry water.

There can be absolutely no doubt that the overwhelming majority of our teachers are capable, dedicated and worthy of every cent that we are paying them - and more. Instead of recognising this, Minister Shaw and his supporters have shown disrespect for the noble profession of teaching. Calling the president of the JTA dishonourable was a disgrace.

Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller, in apologising to the teachers during her Budget speech for Minister's Shaw insult to and lambasting of the teaching profession, reflected the decency and honesty which the majority of Jamaicans associate with our teachers. This majority rightly holds our teachers in high regard. The teachers of Jamaica deserve justice and respect in their payment dispute with the Government. They have earned the citizens' commendations despite the condemnation of Minister Shaw.

Lambert Brown is president of the University and Allied Workers' Union and can be contacted at Labpoyh@yahoo.com.