By Avia Ustanny, Freelance WriterIn the classroom operates a delicate contract of the heart.
Teachers do their work for more than the pay. Most come back year after year for the satisfaction they gain from students who do well and who move on to make a name for themselves. They live for the making of a legend.
For many, that heart ached more than a little last week when the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) signed off on an 8 per cent wage increase, over two years, with the government.
So little pay, so much to do.
Jamaican teachers, on average, take home less than the US minimum wage of $275 a week. Wages, after statutory deductions, range from $20,000 to $38,000 each month. Benefits are negligible, including such things as an extra $1,000 'hardship pay' for working in the inner-city.
Ewan Reid, Principal of St. Anne's High School in Kingston, commenting on the new package, cries: "This is not enough to motivate teachers. If the economy were buoyant and jobs were out there it would be much more difficult to attract teachers. I would like them to get at least a 50 per cent increase over a two-year period. The eight per cent awarded over two years is woefully inadequate."
His wish, however, is as likely to come true as pies falling from the sky.
"My heart is there but I have to leave if I'm to survive."
"I am ready to make some money," says Marion Townsend.
"I don't want to go back. I have done my time."
You would think that she had just completed a prison sentence, but Ms. Townsend reckons that 15 years in the classroom has hemmed her into a life of poverty.
"Enough is enough," she says.
"My heart is in there. I love it, I love it, but I can't live on that alone. I have to feed my children, pay bills further my own way, look after myself. You want enough disposable cash to be able to go to a movie, a play or on vacation.
"I do not live extravagantly but I can't even buy books, even though I am getting my teacher's salary still."
Currently completing a degree at the University of the West Indies, after deductions (she has outstanding loans), she takes home $15,000 a month. She has full financial responsibility for two and "it has been me alone for a while."
The memory of a fellow teacher who retired after 40 years but couldn't afford his own house burns in her mind. The school and some of the male students got together to build him something, she recalls. "I looked at that and it was heartbreaking. It scared me."
Ms. Townsend says she feels hurt that she wasted that much time and nothing has come out of it financially.
Among her batch mates at university are many other teachers who are also discouraged by crime and violence in the classroom as well as the low pay. "Our salary is not on par with anyone else, taking into the consideration the work we do. We have to guide students in extracurricular activities , counsellor, parenting... It is a very stressful job."
She's considering becoming an urban planner but is also weighing the option of going abroad.
CALLS FROM RECRUITERS IN THE US AND THE UK
Christina Forbes,who teaches at a primary school in east Kingston is even more primed to teach in foreign classrooms.
"At 5:00 o'clock this morning I received a call from Birmingham, England in response to the resume I posted on a (teacher recruitment) web site.
She's also pondering over the call she got from a recruiter in the US.
"I have sent my resume to New York and Canada. I want a change."
Miss Forbes says she holds down two jobs and is tired, stressed and not seeing the money.
"Right now I have no social life."
Plus, she complains, the children are not reading and though classes sizes have been scaled down from an average of 100 students, the numbers still average about 50 - but still about twice the average in US primary schools.
"Some teachers like more (students) because of the private lesson money," says Miss Forbes, "but to me, the resources are not there -- the material, the books. In inner-city schools the parents cannot buy books I have to photocopy out of my pocket and even give them lunch money. I turn like their mother. It's too much."
WHEN THE 'CONTRACT' WITH STUDENTS IS BROKEN
It's a good thing that teachers work for more than money.
The substance that binds them to the classroom is intangible. Teachers fill the role mother and father for eight hours (or longer) of the day: "Here is some lunch money. Come and let me straighten your collar. Why are you crying? What did you say your father did to you last night? Miss V. call 119, we have an emergency here."
The demands are endless.
The reward for such parenting is performance, respect and love from and on the part of the students.
It is when this contract is broken, when students no longer respond, or appear disinterested in the sacrifice, that the contract of the heart is broken. With the emotional reward gone, not much is left.
Christina Forbes, a Grade Seven teacher in Kingston notes: "You are helping them and expecting them to behave. There is no respect."
"The (school) compound is not private. Outsiders are coming in any time of the day dressed inappropriately. There are fights, war."
"I really do like teaching but the landscape has changed," complains one vice principal from an inner-city who has been at it for more than 20 years.
"The children are not as respectful. We have parents who themselves need to be trained. There is a lot of lawlessness. If I were younger I would go into something else."
The lower the stream, the more behavioural problems are played out, she adds. "Children do not want to read, they want questions with instant yes or no answers, they do not like challenges. They are not with you. They tune you out.
"At the same time society is so unfair to us. Everybody expects us to turn out the ideal students," she says, noting that most who criticise are blind to the complexities of the problems.
OTHERS STAY BECAUSE OF THE FEELING OF SATISFACTION
Still, others continue for the hope of excellence.
P. Cuff of St. Anne's High School says he stays because "I really like when the students excel, it gives me a feeling of satisfaction. It is kind of frustrating now still but there are a few cases where students have done well and it lifts the spirit."
The pay, as small as it is, still supports frugal living, which is better than no living at all.
V. Miller from Albion All-Age in Montego Bay asserts:" I am not living in luxury but I am not suffering either. I cannot live in two houses at the same time, neither can I eat more than a set number of meals each day. Might as well I take it easy and wait on the Lord."
Pragmatically, she has resorted to baking as an alternative source of income. "I have a wedding in September and I know if I work on it I can do more."
Yet another survival strategy is to get out of the public schools and into private institutions.
I. Thomas, who recently resigned from the government system and now teaches at a prep school in Kingston, said, "I have a teaching assistant so the stress is less. The class size is smaller. I come to a clean classroom so I do not have to be cleaning it myself. Since I am older I really do appreciate these things."
For younger teachers in the public schools not even cleaner classrooms or the marginal salary increase holds any appeal. Where hearts are broken, 'loose change' cannot heal.
Names changed by request
