THE EDITOR, Sir:
The Gleaner's January 16th commentary on Teacher Recruitment was strikingly naive, and whether or not its authors realise, even promotive of an economic form of slavery!
Though many of its points appeared well made, its short-sighted, simplistic approach is easily summed up in the phrase "get out of the way cause we're going to do it anyway," and neglects the greater visions and aspirations of a nation's people, in favour of serving the temporal and the mundane.
It's all well and good to suggest that in a global economy, people have the right to make up their own minds, but isn't that also simply an excuse for ignoring larger concerns?
For example, do readers really believe that only 5 per cent of all Jamaican teachers have left the island? And what about historically? What has been the cumulative effect of even that small percentage of continuous, overall migration?
Teacher recruitment, other than for the needs of a booming population, is typically a sign of the chronic weakness of the recruiting school system. For example, here in Lee County, Florida, a booming, growth area, there is an ongoing shortage of teachers. We're also considered to have one of the worst educational systems in the State, not to mention being considered one of the most racist areas in the nation!
More than three hundred years ago, much of Jamaica's ancestry was stolen from Africa, and today, though that form of slavery has ended, yet another seems to have taken its place, the foreign recruitment of skilled labour to First World nations.
Forget how qualified Jamaican teachers are, in First-World nations, such as the US and England, a shortage of teachers is no longer a developmental problem, it's one of personal motivation - a measure of the true quality of a culture. The reason for shortages? Who wants to be a teacher in a culture that holds teachers in the same self-esteem as they do sanitation workers and often pays them less?
"Those that can, do; those that can't, teach," is the saying here in the US. Does that apply in Jamaica as well? If so, too bad for you, as well.
One thing I remember about my teaching experiences on the island, was that more so than in the US, the community around the school held me and my colleagues in highest esteem, knowing that we were there, working for the benefit of their children, regardless of the hardships placed upon us by our profession.
I am, etc.,
ED McCOY
MMHobo48@AOL.COM
Bokeelia, Florida
Via Go-Jamaica
