Deon P. Green, Sunday Gleaner Writer

LONDON, England:

Jamaican and other foreign teachers who have been working in the United Kingdom face losing their jobs this summer after the expiration of their four-year work permits.

They are to lobby the Ministry of Education back in Jamaica to support their fight to continue teaching in the United Kingdom.

Teachers there are expected to obtain Qualified Teacher's Status (QTS) by the academic year-end in July, but many will be unable to meet this deadline and stand to be terminated as a result.

Trying to gain qualification

Several Jamaican teachers who wrote to The Gleaner said they had been teaching in the U.K. for four years, some in permanent positions, and were still trying to gain the QTS qualification. However, some have already received written and verbal notice that their employment will be terminated because they have not gained the QTS.

" ... We don't think we should be at this disadvantage since most of us are experienced teachers with more than five years' teaching experience, prior to entering the U.K., and have offered a lot to the British education system since our arrival," said the teachers.

They complained of being misinformed by U.K. authorities about the QTS qualification. Furthermore, they added, they neither had the time nor sufficient resources, based on their wages, needed to pay for the QTS.